Pittsburgh Penguins Drub Detroit Red Wings
The Pittsburgh Penguins were coming off a 3-0 shutout after their six game win streak was stopped by the New Jersey Devils. They quickly righted their ship, blasting the Detroit Red Wings by a score of 7-2.
The Pens didn’t look so sharp in the first period against Detroit. Fans were no doubt concerned after they weren’t able to score against New Jersey, and didn’t put a puck in the net during the first stanza versus the Red Wings. Pittsburgh quieted all those doubts, and more, after exploding in the second period.
Andreas Athanasiou got things started for Detroit in the first period splitting the Penguins’ defense and then beating Marc-Andre Fleury. He received a very nice backhand pass from Brad Richards to set up the score.
Although the Pens weren’t able to score in the first period, it didn’t take them long to get on the board and even the contest in the second. Chris Kunitz took a puck off the end boards and stuffed it in behind Red Wings’ goaltender Petr Mrazek. Unfortunately, later in the period, Kunitz took a hit from Pavel Datsyuk and left the game. He will be a game-time decision for tomorrow’s contest with the New York Rangers. Also injured during the game was defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who will not play tomorrow.
The Pens put themselves ahead less than four minutes after tying the game on a goal by Kris Letang. Their top defenseman beat Mrazek from just inside the right faceoff circle to put the Pens up 2-1. They now had the momentum and things would start rolling from here.
Nick Bonino, who had a career game with a goal and four assists, got his first helper of the game on the Pens’ third goal. Carl Hagelin ripped a wrist shot on that goal which gave the Pens the two goal lead. Considering that Bonino was a game-time decision for Pittsburgh, it was quite the turnaround of events for him, starting with this assist.
Bonino would get another assist on the Penguins’ next goal, by Phil Kessel. Number 81 also had quite the game, also scoring and earning four assists himself.
More from Penguins News
- Welcome To The Burgh: Lars Eller
- Penguins Waddle Toward The Season
- Farewell Carl Hagelin
- Penguins Line-up Breakdown vs Stanley Cup Champs Vegas
- Ryan Graves Solid Signing For The Pittsburgh Penguins
Detroit would try to get back into the contest and were able to reduce their deficit to two goals. Mike Green scored on the powerplay, just over five minutes into the third period. That deficit would be brought back to three goals quickly however, when Eric Fehr scored at 6:44 in the third.
Pittsburgh regained their momentum and would roll on to the win from here. Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino both put pucks in the net to extend the Penguins lead to five goals, which they would not relinquish.
The offensive outpouring by the Penguins was a much-needed effort. Not only did they get things going in the right direction, after a brief blip with their shutout at the hands of New Jersey, but they beat a team who is squarely in contention for a Wild Card spot in the Red Wings.
They saw a nice team effort and got some production from their depth players. They’ll need the whole team to produce like this if they want to continue playing into April.