Datsyuk, Wings sitting pretty close

The Detroit Red Wings are on the brink of bringing back the Cup.

Playing in front of their home crowd and with one of their top players making his series debut, the Wings closed in on their second consecutive NHL title with a 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night.

The win at Joe Louis Arena gave the Wings a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and they can capture the 12th Stanley Cup in team history with a win in Game 6 at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Detroit was buoyed by the return of NHL most valuable player nominee Pavel Datsyuk, who had sat out the Wings’ previous seven games because of a foot injury.

Datsyuk made an immediate impact with two assists and strong defense that helped shut down Pittsburgh stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who had combined for 10 points in the first four games.

“It’s a little bit hard to start with the final series when I miss a couple of games,” said Datsyuk, who played almost 18 minutes. “But [I’m] ready to play more, especially with [Henrik Zetterberg]. I feel better and better.”

In addition to Datsyuk’s contributions, Zetterberg and Brian Rafalski each had a goal and assist. Dan Cleary, Valtteri Filppula and Niklas Kronwall also scored.

“I think everyone was glad to see that Pavel was back,” Zetterberg said. “He brought a lot of energy on and off the ice.”

The Wings rode the wave of a four-goal, second-period outburst to help goaltender Chris Osgood (22 saves) record the win with his second shutout of the playoffs and 15th in his postseason career.

“That was probably one of our better, more complete games start to finish,” said Cleary, who scored the lone goal in the first period. “We played hard in each area. We were disciplined and capitalized. The power play was great [and] Osgood was good when he had to be. It was probably one of our best games but we’ve got to play even better on Tuesday.”

The Penguins seemed to lose their composure after Filppula’s score early in the second and the Wings took advantage with three consecutive power-play goals to put the game away. Pittsburgh was whistled for 48 minutes in penalties; Detroit had 14.

“We were able to hang on to the puck down low and I thought we were coming wave after wave,” said Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who assisted on Rafalski’s goal.

It was the eighth consecutive postseason victory at home for the Wings and improved their overall home playoff mark to 11-1. Their 11 home wins in a single playoff year are one short of the NHL record set by New Jersey in 2003.

“When you don’t play well at all, you have nothing to do but improve,” Crosby said. “The situation is pretty clear for us. We’ve got to go home and be desperate now. We’ve got to respond the right way.”

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ckuc@tribune.com