I don't usually like to talk about the refs because in the grand scheme of things everything tends to even out in the wash; but that missed pick call on the 5 on 3 was a back-breaker.

Here's the description of Rule 67 (Note 4)*:

(NOTE 4) Pick:
A "pick" is the action of a player who checks an opponent who is not in possession of the puck and is unaware of the impending check/hit. A player who is aware of an impending hit, not deemed to be a legal "battle for the puck", may not be interfered with by a player delivering a "pick". A player delivering a "pick" is one who moves into an opponent's path without initially having body position, thereby taking him out of the play. When this is done, an interference penalty shall be assessed.

Yep, that sounds about right to me, although Stoll probably could have fought through it a little harder, which would have made the call easier than simply flopping after the contact.

[UPDATE 1]: I just saw a clip of Stoll saying that he was definitely clipped, but admitting that he went down too easily basically looking for the call. Bad move by Stoll. Mac-T also said that he thought Stoll flopped a bit and didn't look all that pleased about it. Not as displeased as Tortorella about TB's goaltending, but unhappy nonetheless. It has to be seen as a symptom of how the game was called as a whole. If you are going to call every little ticky tack thing (on both sides) you have to expect that people will try to draw those kind of calls.

Anyway, there were about 10 other penalty calls on the Oilers that were deserved, and Edmonton did have two 5 on 3's that they failed to convert. Terrible discipline. Hemsky was quite simply, awful tonight. In addition, like the other loss, the Oilers had zero 5 on 5 production -- not that there was a heckuva lot of 5 on 5 play.

[UPDATE 2]: Mac-T was pretty good in the post-game interview. He mentioned that he wasn't a big fan of the two refs, but that he knew it was going to be tightly called before the game, tried to warn the players about it, and they just didn't adjust as well as Detroit's players did. In other words, while not liking the way the game was called, he put the blame squarely on the Oilers players rather than the refs, which sounds about right to me. Babcock completely missed this distinction, and made some snide comment about how he didn't go whining about the refs when Detroit lost the last game.

The bad news, of course, is that it is now a best of three series with home ice advantage going to the President's Trophy winners. Somewhat daunting to say the least.

The good news is that if this was the best we can expect from the Wings, then the Oil are not out of this thing yet. The other good news is that the Oil will not win the series in 5, meaning that they get another home date and the associated revenue.

*Note: Fenwick was the first to put up the graphic and link to the rule book. I thought it looked so darn good in his entry, that I updated mine. In other words, although it looks like my entry was earlier, I totally ripped him off.