Something had to happen. This was last year all over again.

The Wings were preparing to fire their primary weapon.

The Pens had to disable it now.

So Jordan Staal went on a magical mystery tour.

He uses some unrealistic speed to fly through the neutral zone.

Brian Rafalski wished he was 10 years younger as Staal powers past him and beats Elroy.

Then the Mega Powers set the Mellon into a frenzy.

Not entirely lost in all of this is how huge TK's goal was.

It was almost as big as Staal's.

And let's not forget about MAF.

He has gotten exponentially better as the series has worn on.

Don't look now, but the exact opposite is happening at the other end.

Today is probably the most enjoyable Friday you've had in a while.

But we don't need to tell you what's next.

Pavel Datsyuk is waiting in Game 5.

Will they throw him into the fire immediately, against Malkin?

And is Zetterberg simply getting tired of "chasing Crosby around"?

Speaking of which, the Wings' tongues were hanging out in the third.

A move back to home ice won't change that.

And that aroma stinging your nostrils as you head into the weekend?

It's blood.

fiddy14, sven, emily, boobs, E Skee, Itsfleuryingout2571, joey l, rkr, grant h, big bunn,

Allison, mparks, mark c, dan, big bad brad, danielle, josh, clauer, fleuryous.

we missed a couple names

Mellon was into it early.

Crosby and Zetterberg cancel each other out again.

Malkin's line kicks over the boards and starts going to town.

Kronwall does something to Malkin that is a penalty.

Anyone who knows Bill McCreary, knows he is going to play to the crowd in the first two minutes.

McCreary with the overdramtic tripping signal.

Had to score.  Had to do whatever it took.

Red Wings kill off most of the penalty, but the Malkin gets free.

He feeds Staal.  Osgood makes a save, but the puck finds Letang.

He missed the net, but Malkin gets a favorable bounce.  Osgood loses his net.

The Pens were dictating the world after the goal, too.
Red Wings noticed it and decided to go back into their shell for a while.

The Red Wings lulled the Pens to sleep and started attacking randomly.
It's a solid game plan.
They get a big-time flurry on MAF.  No dice.

Detroit was gonna get their first power play. Probably the least-smartest play Eaton has made all year.
Cooke hits Lidstrom.  Beautiful.  Not enough of it.
Lidstrom is a whiner.
Pens kill it.  Big-time kill.

Late in the period, Kunitz gets a high stick in the visor.
Most delayed response of all time.  Who cares.
Another PP.

Pens win the faceoff to set up. Crosby on the point.

Bill Guerin gets called for high sticking, which negates it.

Not sure how you "high-stick" a player who is down on one knee.  But whatev.

Your attention shifted to getting out of the first.
Didn't happen.

Scuderi makes his first mistake in a while and fails to clear the puck.

Scuds and Eaton had now both made their worst plays of the season in the same period...in the SCF.
Turnover city.  Ouch.

1-1.

The fact that no Red Wings blog has a photoshop called "Nightmare on Helm Street" shows you why they are jokes.

Osgood misplays a puck at the end.
Malkin was lurking.  Man, that would have been nice.

Didn't seem like the Wings had 19 shots

Bill Guerin's brother, John Guerin is a hero. [From some paper]

All series, the second period. has been a rough patch.

But the Pens come out flying and get a quick chance.  Okay, this is going to be a differ-- vomit.

Brad Stuart beats MAF through a screen.  Oh no. 2-1.

The Wings start doing what they do.

The Pens needed something.

Everything was being sucked out of the Mellon.

But all we saw were two penalties called back-to-back.

Biggest penalty kill of the year. Wings score, and it might be all over.

The Pens get within two seconds of killing the first one off, but Orpik gets whistled.

And then a funny thing happened.

Malkin came out of the box and forced a turnover.

Franzen shows some unreal speed to catch Malkin.

Good no-call.

But the play changes things.

With still time left on the kill, Talbot jobs a puck at the point.  It gets to Staal.

Lidstrom's bones fall off, and its Staal vs. Rafalski.

Staal gets a step.  No way. Power move city.  Beats Osgood stick side.

The common theme will be to say it was a series-changing goal.

How history treats Jordan Staal's goal will be determined by these next few games.

You might think about the play while you have sex.

Or you may never think about it again.

One thing the goal did do, was stun the Wings. They never recovered in the game.

About two minutes later, Bing delievered the game-winner.

Malkin makes another play to spring a two-on-one. The whole world stood up.

He tries to get the puck to Bing once, but it gets caught up.

But in a split second the puck is back on his stick.

And then it is in the back of the net.

3-2. Wow.

After that, Guerin and Tenk almost bury two chances. Wings are on the ropes.

Tyler Kennedy delivers the knockout.

He causes a turnover.

Puck goes to Kunitz.

Kunitz to Bing.

Bing back to TK.

Just like that, things changed.

MAF had to be sharp to get out of the period.

Malkin has a last-second breakaway.  No dice.

He is on another level.

Instead of airing a new season of SURVIVOR, they should just replay the third period of the game.

The Red Wings got some pressure early, but they looked like they ran themselves out.

The big bad comeback never happened.

The Wings come up...short.

game

MISCELLANEOUS

• Recap was a rush job.  The grammar we dominated you with in the Betty story?  Yeah, probably not so much today.

Uh-oh, is that bickering we hear?

From Puck Daddy:

Like, for example, the gossip in the postgame interviews that the Big Red Wing Machine was bickering on the ice; an assertion denied by both coach Mike Babcock and captain Nicklas Lidstrom.

"I don't think we were sniping at each other," Lidstrom said. "I think we lost a little bit [of composure].

But they gained a lot of momentum by getting that goal."

See you Saturday