The Detroit Red Wings allowed a substantial opportunity slip away Tuesday night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Despite outplaying the Pittsburgh Penguins for the better part of the first 40 minutes, outshooting Pittsburgh 26-11 through those two periods, the game remained deadlocked at two goals apiece heading into the third period.

Let's give credit where credit is due. The Pittsburgh Penguins badly needed a victory Tuesday night and were able to persevere in the third period of a tied hockey game, battling for any chance to remain in this series.

However, the Red Wings had to be slightly disappointed to walk into the Mellon Arena dressing room after 40 minutes without a lead. They had chances to break this game (and series) open during the middle stanza in which they outshot Pittsburgh 14-4 and held a significant territorial advantage. Pittsburgh received very strong goaltending out of Marc-Andre Fleury during the final 40 minutes, who was able to keep the game within reach for the Pens. Chris Osgood wasn’t as good as he was in Detroit, but despite only facing 24 shots, the Pens had several great scoring chances late in the third period that required Osgood to stand tall and keep Detroit within one shot of tying the game.

Many Wing fans following the game were blaming the referees’ whistle for the loss in Game 3. More bothersome for Red Wing fans than the third period penalty called on Jonathan Ericsson should be the fact Detroit’s penalty killing once again failed to stop the opposition and remains relatively ineffective. Detroit’s PK has only killed off 71.4% of their penalties this postseason.

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Game 3 also appeared to reveal the first signs of the Red Wings finally exhibiting they miss Pavel Datsyuk. With Henrik Zetterberg playing over 24 minutes and being constantly ready to switch with other players to ensure he was matched up against either Crosby or Malkin, it became evident as the night wore on that the presence of Datsyuk in the lineup would allow Babcock to avoid having to worry as much about line matchups, even while playing on the road.

That, in conjunction of the offense not being able to break open the game during their second period domination of the Pens illustrated the inkling that perhaps Detroit is beginning to actually “miss” their Hart Trophy candidate.

Time will only tell if Datsyuk appears at all in this series. Babcock offered a hint during his pre-game press conference on Tuesday that perhaps Pavel will be ready to go Thursday night in Game 4. I think the greater likelihood is that he gives it a go in Game 5 Saturday night back at Joe Louis Arena.

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mark.spizzirri@hockeybuzz.com