PITTSBURGH — The Penguins wouldn't let the Red Wings celebrate with the Stanley Cup, not again. Not in this Game 6 in their arena. Not without going the distance in a finals where home ice means everything and momentum means nothing.

Third-line teammates Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy gave the Penguins a two-goal lead, and Marc-Andre Fleury held off the defending champion Red Wings repeatedly during a frantic third period as Pittsburgh beat Detroit, 2-1, last night to tie the unpredictable series at three games.

Game 7 is Friday night in Joe Louis Arena, where Detroit is 3-0 but, as the oldest of NHL playoff adages goes, anything can happen when a single game determines who raises a silver trophy.

"That's as big as it gets. You get a chance to play for the Cup and it's Game 7," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said.

Fleury, yanked during Detroit's 5-0 blowout in Game 5 after giving up four goals in the second period, regrouped to make 25 saves and hold off the Red Wings, who went winless in Pittsburgh as they go for their fifth Stanley Cup since 1997.

"I thought the best thing coach (Dan Bylsma) said to us after that was, 'It's the same as last game. We still need two wins to win the Stanley Cup,'" defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "That calmed the room down. Instead of thinking, 'We're down, we're down, we're down,' you're thinking, 'OK, two more wins.' "

Now, it's down to one — for both teams.

The Red Wings won the Cup by taking Game 6 in Pittsburgh, 3-2, last year but were denied a second successive clincher there.

Fleury couldn't have been much better as the Penguins won for the first time in the playoffs without a point from stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

"He was unbelievable for us," Crosby said.

Staal skated in on a 2-on-1 break started by Kennedy. Staal's initial shot deflected off goalie Chris Osgood's chest, but Staal gathered the rebound near the right post and pushed it in only 51 seconds into the second.

"It ended up coming right back to me, so I just buried my head and fired it," Staal said.

Detroit finally began generating some offensive momentum only to have Kennedy make it 2-0 at 5:35.

The Red Wings sliced it to 2-1 when an undefended Kris Draper grabbed Jonathan Ericsson's rebound in the left circle and put it past Fleury 2 1/2 minutes after Kennedy scored.

Fleury made a game-saving stop on a Dan Cleary breakaway with 1:41 remaining, and the game ended with a flurry in which Detroit couldn't score.

DETROIT 0 0 1—1

PITTSBURGH 0 1 1—2

Second Period—1, Pittsburgh, Staal 4 (Kennedy, Scuderi), :51. Third Period—2, Pittsburgh, Kennedy 5 (Talbot, Fedotenko), 5:35. 3, Detroit, Draper 1 (Ericsson, Lidstrom), 8:01.

Shots on Goal—Detroit 3-9-14—26. Pittsburgh 12-12-7—31. Power-play opportunities—Detroit 0 of 2; Pittsburgh 0 of 2. Goalies—Detroit, Osgood 15-7-0 (31 shots-29 saves). Pittsburgh, Fleury 15-8-0 (26-25).

A—17,132 (16,940). T—2:24.

STANLEY CUP FINALS

YESTERDAY

Pittsburgh 2, Detroit 1, series tied 3-3.

FRIDAY

Pittsburgh at Detroit, 2 p.m.

NOTES

Devils: Brent Sutter has resigned as the coach of New Jersey after just two seasons. Sutter cited family reasons in making the decision, saying the Devils' crushing loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series had nothing to do with it. Sutter had a year left on his contract.