One goal that evened the game ignited the Pittsburgh Penguins offense into a victory that would also even the series.

Eight minutes and thirty-five seconds into the second period, with the Detroit Red Wings on the powerplay and the Penguins trailing 2-1, Jordan Staal found himself with the puck on his stick.  Taking off from center, he drove to the net, overpowered Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski and flipped the puck past goalie Chris Osgood to even the game and ignite what would be a three-goal second period for the Penguins.

Surprisingly, the Red Wings special teams once again failed them, as the team went 0-for-4 on the penalty kill, while giving up Staal’s shorthanded goal as well as giving up a powerplay goal to Evgeni Malkin to open the scoring.  For a Red Wings team that was so accomplished on special teams during the regular season, they are coming up short at the wrong time.

“Tension at the wrong time, stepping up at the wrong time,” Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom told Yahoo.com when prompted about their special teams struggles.  “We just had bad timing on some of those goals.”

Also becoming noticeably absent for the Red Wings are their star players.  With Pavel Datsyuk out with an injury, the trio of Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa have been expected to step up and fill the void left by the Hart Trophy candidate.  In the series, however, Franzen has just three points in four games, Zetterberg has four points in four games and Hossa has just two points in four games.  On the other side, the Penguins best player all year long, Malkin, has seven points in the four games including five in the last two.  There is no doubt that the Wings are missing their leading scorer.

“It would be a huge boost for us,” Zetterberg told Yahoo.com.  “He’s one of the best in the league.”

What is being overlooked in all of this, however, is how good of a hockey team the Penguins really are.  This is the second time this post season that the Penguins have fought back from a two-game deficit and their tandem of Malkin and Sidney Crosby have finally been able to break free from the smothering Detroit defense.

“I think on Sid and Geno’s first couple of shifts, you could tell they were on right away,” Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi told NHL.com.  “When you have those two talented guys decide to chip it in and go and get it and create offense down low, you know it is going to be a good night for us.”

Malkin and Crosby did just that, combining for two goals, two assists and nine shots on goal en route to the Pens’ 4-2 victory, including combining for Crosby’s goal.  After a blocked shot, Malkin and Crosby streaked down the ice on a 2-on-1 with Jonathan Ericsson in the middle.  Ericsson blocked the initial pass, but Malkin calmly collected the puck again and found Crosby again for what would be the game-winning goal.

“I’m probably going to make the highlight reel for a while on that third (goal),” Osgood told NHL.com.  “Not that I like it; but what can I say, they were great goals.”

The series will travel back to Detroit on Saturday night for Game Five.

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