As it was being pointed out that the Penguins are up against the team with the best record in hockey, are venturing into the lair of experienced octopus tossers and will have to sweep the three remaining games or fall short in their quest for the Stanley Cup, Sidney Crosby interrupted.

"We have to win one," said the Penguins' under-21 captain and the scoring leader in the playoffs. "There's no choice now. We have to win to stay in. We'll battle in Detroit and see what happens."

The gravity of the situation has a clarity all its own: Win tonight in the Joe Louis Arena, where they lost the first two games of the series by a combined 7-0, to compete another day or be eliminated and have a remarkable season ended ruthlessly and abruptly. It's the hockey team equivalent of returning with their shields or on them.

The Penguins have had big games this season. No team can win their division and dispatch three teams in the playoffs without winning some big games. But this is their first time in the crucible of an elimination game, a game they absolutely have to win. If they don't, they'll be forced to watch on an ice surface slimed by octopi as the Red Wings celebrate in triumph.

In the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, six teams have fought back from a 3-1 deficit in games to force a seventh game. But only one of them -- the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, after falling behind, 3-0, to the Detroit Red Wings -- dug itself out of the grave to win.

All that's left may be a gossamer thread of hope, but that's all the Boston Red Sox had in 2004. Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to the Yankees in an elimination game, burdened by 86 years of failure and facing the best closer in the game, the Red Sox rallied to win, added victories in the next three games to take the series and swept their way to a World Series title against the Cardinals. Competitors don't stop until the last grain of sand has fallen through the hourglass.

The Penguins know they can't get three victories at once, so the focus centers exclusively on tonight's game. For them, the number is not three, but one.

"Right now, it's one game," said Adam Hall. "We're fighting for our lives here, fighting for our season. One game is all that matters. Everything that happened in the past doesn't matter. It's zero-zero. Back to square one. We have a lot of faith in each other. This isn't over. We have to win one game and go from there."

That's the correct state of mind and precisely the right words. But the Penguins twice have had teams down by 3-1 margins -- the Rangers and the Flyers -- and ended both series on their home ice, motivated in part by the fear of allowing a opponent to get back up.

One of the most formidable challenges of this predicament is the quality of the opposition, a Red Wings team loaded with experienced players. And no one needs to be reminded that they suffocated the Penguins in the first two games, obstructing more oncoming traffic than all the orange barrels on the Parkway East.

"This is where you want to be, to have a chance to win a Stanley Cup," said Detroit's Niklas Lidstrom, considered by the Penguins and many neutral observers to be the best defensive player in the NHL. "It never gets old, but we haven't won anything yet. We won three games. You have to win four to win the Stanley Cup."

The Detroit captain has won three NHL titles, and 11 Red Wings players have won a total of 24 championship rings. That means they know what to expect tonight, know what it feels like to seal the deal, know what sacrifices have to be made to hoist The Cup. The Penguins don't know that they weren't supposed to get this far this fast and don't know that many people have already written them off.

"This is not over yet," Mr. Lidstrom cautioned. "We have to win one more game in order to win it all."

For the Penguins, there is no time to dwell on the missed chances and lost opportunities of the first four games, especially a five-on-three advantage Saturday that failed to produce a tying goal. There may be only 60 minutes of regulation time left for Evgeni Malkin, a finalist for the MVP award and second most prolific scorer in the regular season, to score his first point in this series. There is no time to dwell on the fact that Saturday's 2-1 loss was the first time they fell short in 10 playoff games at home. The Mellon Arena scoreboard flashed this message to a 66th consecutive sellout crowd: "You have stood behind us. Now stand with us."

Tonight, in the 101st game of a marathon season, might be the last chance to do so.

"We know we are in a tough situation," said winger Marian Hossa. "We're going to fight to the end. They still have to win one more game."