How quickly a series can change. Just when many of us were beginning to wonder whether the Detroit Red Wings were perhaps too banged up, too fatigued to hold off the young and talented Pittsburgh Penguins, the Wings put up one of their best outings of this postseason with a 5-0 dismantling of the Penguins in Game 5.

Those that doubted should have known better. The start looked shaky, as it appeared the Pens were going to continue to ride the wave that began with Jordan Staal's shorthanded tally in Game 4. However, the Red Wings weathered the storm and Dan Cleary scored off a feed from Pavel Datsyuk to ease the pressure and settle their nerves. In a matter of just under 36 minutes, Marc-Andre Fleury was resigned to the bench and everyone in the building began looking forward to Game 6 in Pittsburgh.

Without question, Pavel Datsyuk's presence was felt in a big way in his return. In addition to setting up two goals, he drew a penalty which resulted in Detroit's 3rd goal and was responsible for a couple of hits early on in the 1st period to help establish his physical presence. It goes without saying Detroit is a different team with Datsyuk in the lineup at both ends of the rink. Pittsburgh's big stars will definitely have to step up once again to answer the bell after the performance spearheaded by the likes of Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Detroit has now outscored Pittsburgh 11-4 in this series at even-strength. During the first four games, Pittsburgh's special teams certainly outplayed Detroit's, enabling them to win two games and perhaps should have given the Pens the chance to be up 3-1. However, if Detroit's power play clicks as it did tonight and has for most of the season, Pittsburgh is in a heap of trouble if it expects to win the final two games of this series.

To make matters worse, Detroit now has two days off to rest up in order to be prepared to finish off this series on the road in Pittsburgh for the second year in a row. It's not very often that this Detroit club hasn't won at least one game on the road in a playoff series. They have been one of the best road teams in the league for the last few seasons. Last spring, they clinched all four of their playoff series wins on the road in a Game 6.

As ready as Detroit will be to try and wrap things up on the road, it would be surprising if Pittsburgh doesn't respond with its best effort of the series in Game 6 Tuesday night at home. The question left to be answered, once and for all, is whether their best can beat Detroit's best, now that Datsyuk has returned to the lineup. We may get our final answer Tuesday night.


mark.spizzirri@hockeybuzz.com