The Penguins gave a Saturday night beating at PPG Paints Arena. Their three unanswered goals in the final period gave them an edge to beat the Red Wings 5-3. What looked to be a solid outing for Detroit goaltender Jared Coreau ended in disaster as the Penguins lit up the lamp too many times to regroup from.
For the first time in his career, Coreau earned the start in net for Detroit. Petr Mrazek got a day off after dealing with serious competition that led the Red Wings to a 3-0-2 record in their last five. Detroit nearly had the edge on the Florida Panthers but lost the pace and fell for a second OT. Coreau spent most of his time with AHL Grand Rapids where his skills have been highly relied on. Though he goes against the defending Stanley Cup champions, he carried the experience from a preseason matchup that resulted in a big win.
The rookie goaltender made a strong statement making a big save on Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. Detroit fought for possession in their attempts to move the puck for their benefit. It wasn’t an easy process as Pittsburgh recorded three shots in the first five minutes before the Red Wings got one on Marc-Andre Fleury.
Their second shot came on a short breakaway by Anthony Mantha. Mantha gained the turnover in the neutral zone but was denied by Fleury who made the save. Pittsburgh went right back to work putting the pressure in the Detroit zone. Shots began to challenge the Red Wings defense as well as Coreau getting out of trouble for a short time. The offensive shifts continued on blocking Detroit’s push out of their zone going after their scoring chances.
For the eighth time against the Penguins at home, Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg conducted a great goal lifting the puck on net to give his team the lead with six minutes left on the clock. It was his fifth of the season and the first since Nov. 15. Detroit tried to increase their shots to the net against Pittsburgh but the power from the Penguins was too much for them to make a full comeback. Detroit gave up the first penalty on the night with 14 seconds left. They were outshot 10-7 through 20 minutes but gaining a lead against their Eastern Conference rivals was a start.
Detroit killed off the remainder of the power play to start the second but later on gave them a second chance to level the playing field. The Penguins jammed at the puck in front of Coreau but the 25-year-old kept his crease clear of the puck. Blocked shots and clearing puck from their zone gave the Red Wings a second straight penalty kill with another big answer.
Jonathan Ericsson came out of the box to get in on a play with Frans Nielsen skating in. Nielsen saw his line open up with Ericsson taking up Pittsburgh’s defense leaving him with an easy shot on net to score Detroit’s second unanswered and his sixth of the season. The Penguins wanted nothing more than to put an end to being shutout against the Red Wings and answer Detroit quickly. A well spread out play between Evgeni Malkin and his line ended with long passes into the Detroit end. The puck finished on the stick of Phil Kessel who got right to the net scoring his seventh thereby ending Coreau’s chance for to blanking Pittsburgh.
Despite the opposition, the Red Wings began improving on possession time as well as shots to Fleury. They gained a second man advantage in the final minutes that later saw a full-strength play pay dividends to Detroit. A three man play between Mike Green, Tomas Vanek and Dylan Larkin ended with the 20-year-old sophomore scoring a drive that gave the Red Wings back their two-goal margin and Larkin’s eighth. They remained outshot 14-10 but with the 3-1 score, it clearly put the Penguins on the hot seat going into the third.
The Penguins response arrived just 2:05 into the period as they played the puck deep with Nick Bonino on point. The center drove the puck near the far end zipping by four Red Wings players to notch his third putting the Penguins a goal down. The game intensified for Pittsburgh who were on a mission to level the game by any means. Another play of the puck near the blue line started with Ian Cole faking a centering shot before passing it to Justin Schultz. Schultz fired a shot through traffic scoring his second in three games.
With all the ground lost, Detroit had to stop the force of the Penguins before it got too late to recover from. It only got worse for the Red Wings as a third unanswered went in for Pittsburgh. Carl Hagelin delivered the puck in front of the Detroit crease where Kessel got a shot that beat Coreau and handed Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead.
The Penguins almost had four in a row but a coach’s challenge for interference worked in their favor. Officials confirmed that Patric Hornqvist interfered with Coreau negating their goal. Despite not being down two goals, the Red Wings had too much ground to cover against a strong team that led them to make desperate moves. Coreau came out of the net with less than two minutes to go, but the six-man attack for Detroit didn’t work out for them.
Pittsburgh picked up their fourth straight as a tripping penalty awarded them a free goal giving the credit to Matt Cullen. The horn sounded concluding a breakdown of holding back the Penguins who ran the tail end of the game. Fleury won his eighth of the season stopping 28 of 31 for a .903 save percentage. Coreau had a good game in his debut despite the score making 32 of 36 shots for an average of .889. It wouldn’t be his last start for the Red Wings as he would see action. Detroit would try and change things up when they head to New York to face the Islanders Sunday.
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