The Crosby show

Pittsburgh had 15 of them last night in the first 40 minutes.

“The attention was there. The work ethic was there in Game 2, but the structure was not,” Therrien said. “We had to make sure we stayed focus about playing the right way.”

Crosby nearly completed the hat trick 3:40 into the final period. His shot from the left wall squeezed through Osgood, but the goalie was able to spin around and cover it before it crossed the goal line.

Hall put the Penguins back in front by two with 12:42 remaining. His first attempt hit the side of the net, but after Osgood got caught out of position, Hall put a shot off the Detroit goalie from behind the cage.

Mikael Samuelsson notched his fifth of the playoffs of third of this series with 6:23 remaining to make it a one-goal game again.

“We have a lot of guys who keep an even keel,” Hall said. “Even if the media or the fans or anybody was second-guessing what we were doing, we knew if we stick to what we know we can be successful.”

Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin attended the game after he collected the Art Ross and Maurice Richard trophies earlier in the day. Ovechkin sat in commissioner Gary Bettman’s luxury box.