PITTSBURGH — The Penguins’ fresh legs and fast feet changed the Stanley Cup Finals in a flash, and now a series that looked to be over is only getting started.
Jordan Staal’s short-handed goal during back-to-back Detroit power plays started Pittsburgh’s comeback, and the Penguins scored three goals in less than six minutes of the second period Thursday night in a 4-2 win over the Red Wings that tied the series at two games apiece.
Evgeni Malkin, enjoying the best postseason scoring run since Wayne Gretzky’s in 1993, and Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist each to help rally the Penguins from a 2-1 deficit a year to the day Detroit raised the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh by winning Game 6.
Tyler Kennedy also scored and Marc-Andre Fleury, with his second successive excellent game, made 37 saves. All the Penguins’ goal scorers are 22 or younger — Sid isn’t their only kid — and it may have made a big difference as the older Red Wings played their fourth game in six nights.
“It seemed like all their guys were really slumped over, tired and looked like they were frustrated, really,” Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. “When you see that, you just kind of feed off of it.”
Until Game 4, the Finals followed the same pattern as last year’s: Detroit won the first two at home, then dropped Game 3 in Pittsburgh. But the Red Wings couldn’t follow up their 2-1 road victory in Game 4 of last year, one decided largely when they killed off a lengthy Pittsburgh 5-on-3 advantage, and now these Finals are the best-of-three.
“It’s a race to four (wins) now,” Pittsburgh’s Pascal Dupuis said.
The Red Wings certainly lost all the races in Game 4, done in by a bad second period and dreadful special teams. Pittsburgh has converted on 4-of-9 power plays, and the game swung when the Penguins scored — and the Red Wings didn’t — during 3:59 of continuous Detroit power-play time. Detroit was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
With Detroit up 2-1 after goals by Darren Helm and Brad Stuart less than three minutes apart to end the first period and start the second, Staal — who had only two goals in 20 playoff games — got loose after Max Talbot’s up-ice pass.
The 6-foot-4 Staal used his lengthy stride to thread defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski and beat Chris Osgood at 8:35 of the second period. Staal had a record-tying seven short-handed goals as an 18-year-old rookie in 2006-07, but had only one since.
“Max made a great play. I saw Lidstrom and Rafalski both kind of flat-footed,” Staal said. “I kind of just buried my head, went for it and kind of snuck it in.”
Staal’s goal instantly changed a big opportunity by Detroit to seize control not only of the game, but the series, and the 17,132 jammed into a suddenly rocking Mellon Arena sensed how big the play might be.
“That was a big momentum changer for us,” Talbot said. “The building was so loud, it gave us a lot of emotion.”
Stanley Cup Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Sidney Crosby.
A goal (his first in the series) and an assist for Sid the Kid.
2. Marc-Andre Fleury.
Faced 39 shots by the Red Wings.
3. Evgeni Malkin.
A goal and an assist for the leading scorer in the playoffs. With 35 points, Malkin has more than any player since Wayne Gretzky had 40 in 1993.
