The Penguins' challenge now is simple.

And staggering.

Win three games in a row, or watch Detroit celebrate a Stanley Cup championship.

No ifs, no buts, no maybes.

The Red Wings' 2-1 victory last night at Mellon Arena in Game 4 of the Cup final gave Detroit a chokehold on the series. The Red Wings lead it, 3-1, and can clinch the title with a victory in Game 5 at 8:08 p.m. tomorrow at Joe Louis Arena.

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• What: Game Five
• When: 8:08 p.m. Tomorrow
• Where: Joe Louis Arena
• TV: WPXI

• PG video: Stanley Cup Postgame: Red Wings take Game 4

• Detroit Free Press Stanley Cup coverage and blogs

• Detroit News Stanley Cup coverage and blogs

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"You're excited about being in a position like this," Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "This is what you play for all year long."

Detroit has ample reason to be optimistic it can close out the series tomorrow: The Red Wings won Games 1 and 2 at Joe Louis and outscored the Penguins, 7-0, in the process.

The loss last night was the Penguins' first in 10 playoff games at home, and snapped their 17-game winning streak at Mellon Arena.

Even so, defenseman Brooks Orpik said, "it was probably our best game out of the four" in the final so far.

Consequently, he added, "it's a tough one to swallow."

Nothing was more difficult to accept than the Penguins' failure to score on an extended 5-on-3 power play in the middle of the third period. They had 86 seconds to generate a goal that would have tied the score, but were able to get only one shot on goal.

"That was the big breaking point," Penguins winger Marian Hossa said. "We needed to score a big goal on the 5-on-3, and we didn't."

Although Detroit's penalty-killers, particularly Henrik Zetterberg, turned in an inspired effort -- "I thought we really competed hard on the 5-on-3," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said -- Penguins coach Michel Therrien acknowledged the opportunity his team squandered during the two-man advantage.

"There's no doubt we needed to get that goal," he said. "We didn't execute well."

Sloppy execution made Jiri Hudler's winning goal at 2:26 of the third period possible, too.

The Penguins, operating against the Red Wings' fourth line, had several chances to get the puck out of their end, but never succeeded. Eventually, Hudler got the puck at the inner edge of the right circle, and threw a backhander that snuck between goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and the near post to break a 1-1 tie.

"I don't think he could do that again," Fleury said.

Perhaps not, but Hudler didn't have to. The goal he got was the final one the Red Wings needed, largely because Detroit plays such stingy team defense.

"This is one of the toughest teams I've ever faced," Hossa said. "It seems like they are everywhere."

Still, Hossa felt the Penguins compounded their problems by straying from the dump-and-chase strategy that had produced a 3-2 victory in Game 3.

"We made it tough on ourselves," he said.

It didn't seem like it would play out that way when Hossa staked the Penguins to a 1-0 lead at 2:51 of the opening period, just 40 seconds after Detroit's Dallas Drake was penalized for roughing Ryan Whitney.

Hossa collected a Sergei Gonchar rebound at the right side of the net, pulled the puck onto his forehand and then slid a shot that slipped inside the far post.

"Hossa made a great play," Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. "The guy has unbelievable hands."

Hossa showed them again at 4:13, when he threw a backhander that glanced off Osgood before caroming off the crossbar. That was about as close as the Penguins came to getting a second goal.

Although getting the first goal had been decisive in the first three games of the series -- the team scoring it never trailed in any of them -- the Penguins' 1-0 advantage didn't last long this time.

Two seconds after a cross-checking minor to Pascal Dupuis of the Penguins expired, Lidstrom scored from the left point through a screen at 7:08 of the first to make it 1-1.

That was the 42nd goal of his playoff career, moving Lidstrom past Ray Bourque and into third place on the NHL's all-time list for defensemen, and making it possible for Hudler to nudge the Penguins to the cusp of elimination a bit later in the evening.

"We have to keep our chins up," Hossa said. "They have to win one more game, and we have to make it really tough on them."