A McKenzie Moment...

I think Michel 'Call me Mike' Therrien deserves a pat on the back for the moves he made in Game 5 - and I don't think he's gotten too many pats on the back in these playoffs.

The moves weren't huge but they got some good chemistry going. He moved Tyler Kennedy onto a line with Evgeni Malkin and I thought Kennedy played inspired hockey.

But the real move that I liked was putting Jordan Staal, Max Talbot and, at most times, Adam Hall together. Therrien got a lot of mileage out of what looked like a hard-grinding defensive line. It was a lot of the grinding players and the lesser-likes that stood tall for the Penguins on Monday night.

Not often do you see Talbot out as the extra man when the goalies been pulled, but Therrien played a hunch and why not. Talbot played a tremendous game, getting the tying goal. Earlier, it was Talbot who helped set up the goal by Hall which made it 2-0 for the Penguins.

I really liked that line, and I liked the role-players that the Penguins brought to the dance. I also think Therrien deserves a lot of credit for the moves that he made.

Trial By Fire

It's obviously disappointing for the Detroit Red Wings to lose Game 5 in front of their home crowd but this is an organization that has an awful lot of composure.

From the Penguins' perspective, Pittsburgh is getting trial by fire in these Stanley Cup playoffs and Monday's victory was a chance to grow by leaps and bounds.

I don't want to call Peter Sykora 'Petr Klima,' but I'll tell you what; it wasn't far off. A rather unlikely hero, Sykora played 21 minutes and 20 seconds - ninth most amongst the forwards on the Penguins team.

And what about the much-maligned Pittsburgh power play?

I'm sure there's going to be a lot of talk amongst the Red Wings on the goaltender interference calls but there was no questions on Jiri Hudler's high stick in the third overtime.

The Penguins were given a four minute power play and they come up big.