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Thanks to Maxime Talbot, Marc-Andre Fleury and Petr Sykora, the Pittsburgh Penguins are still alive after one of the most entertaining games in Stanley Cup history.

After Talbot got the Penguins into overtime by the thinnest of margins, 34.3 seconds, Sykora ended the marathon when he scored a power-play goal 9:57 into the third overtime period last night to give the Penguins a 4-3 win and new life in the Cup final when he beat goaltender Chris Osgood with a one-time shot.

The best-of-seven NHL championship series is now 3-2 in favour of Detroit, with Game 6 back in Pittsburgh tomorrow night.

The win came after Wings centre Jiri Hudler was give a double-minor penalty for high-sticking at 9:21. Evgeni Malkin, who improved his play for the second consecutive game after being invisible in the first three of the series, passed the puck from the end boards to Sykora.

"I was getting frustrated the last couple games because I wasn't getting the bounces around the net," said Sykora, who had not scored in the final. "It was nice to win a game.. [The puck] hit the ref and went behind the net. Geno [Evgeni Malkin] got it and got it to me."

But the Penguins would not have been celebrating without an outstanding performance by Fleury in goal. The 23-year-old faced 58 shots with 24 coming in overtime.

"There is no doubt it was the most important win of his career," Penguins head coach Michel Therrien said. "I know my team. I know the character of those guys. They really picked it up a notch in the third period and ended up scoring the goal when we pulled the goalie. After that, both teams left everything on the ice."

The Penguins had to win it without their best defenceman, Sergei Gonchar. He was lost to an injury in the third period and was only able to play on the winning power play, where he helped set up the goal.

Almost an hour earlier, having blown a two-goal lead over the last two periods of regulation time, the Penguins were about to see the Detroit Red Wings hoist the Stanley Cup. Time was running out when Talbot scored with 34.3 seconds left in the third period and Fleury on the bench for the extra attacker. That tied the score and got the game into an overtime marathon, where Fleury held off the Red Wings as they unleashed a fusillade of rubber at him. In the first overtime, the Wings outshot the Penguins 13-2.

Fleury watched his teammates fail to score on a power play in the last three minutes of the first overtime period and again in the second overtime when the Wings were called for goaltender interference for the second time, both of them cheesy calls.

Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said Fleury was outstanding but "I thought he had some help," referring to the Penguins defence.

"They got down to five D but their D battled real hard," he added. "They got off to a good start tonight. They had two goals early."

When Babcock was the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, Sykora played for him, so he knew what was coming on the fateful power play.

"I hated to see Petr Sykora get that puck late," he said. "You just know it's going in. He's that kind of guy. He won a game for me like that in Dallas in five overtimes."

The Penguins had to kill off a penalty late in the second overtime period before getting another break in the third one when Hudler was given the double-minor that set up Sykora's goal.

The Penguins opened the game on a strong note, with goals from Marian Hossa and Adam Hall, but gradually lost their grip on the game.

After the Red Wings took control in the second period, they hung on to it in the third and produced the goals they needed for the lead.

Pavel Datsyuk, who had not scored a goal in the Cup final and saw his best chance go off the crossbar in the third minute of the third period, tied the score 2-2 at 6:43 on a power play.

With his Penguins on the run, Therrien called a timeout to calm them down. But it didn't work, as Wings defenceman Brian Rafalski took a pass from Henrik Zetterberg and fired a shot through a crowd of players and into the net a little more than a minute later that set off an explosion from the crowd at Joe Louis Arena.