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Penguins Score 4 in the 3rd Period, Red Wings Lose 5-3

Posted on by Josh Linneburg

The last time I did a recap, it was for that crazy game against the Devils last Friday. Going into that game, the Wings were desperate for a win and in danger of falling to the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Fast forward one week, and things are a little bit better in Hockeytown.

The Wings have won 3 of their last 5, with both losses coming in overtime, to give them 8 out of a possible 10 points in that span. They’re still not in a playoff position just yet, but only two points separate them from the 3rd place Boston Bruins in a tightly-packed Atlantic Division. A win here tonight to close the gap on Boston, Tampa and Florida would be huge, especially over the defending Cup champion Penguins.

It is a little early to be scoreboard-watching but as we’ve seen many times over the past few seasons, every point counts. If we can topple the Penguins tonight and hope the Capitals and Senators handle the Lightning and Panthers, I think we’ll be in good shape.

On to the game!

1st Period

Just 2 minutes into the game and Coreau had to come up big for a save as the Penguins had numbers deep in the zone after a neutral zone turnover. The Penguins started buzzing after this, moving the puck all over the zone and picking apart the Wings’ defense. A few seconds later Coreau, well, I can’t even describe this it’s so incredible. Just watch.

Yup, that’s just Jared Coreau robbing Sidney Freaking Crosby in his first NHL start. No big deal.

7 minutes into the game and this one was all Pittsburgh, the Wings had one or two chances but the Pens controlled the majority of the play.

After the Penguins cycled the puck endlessly in the offensive zone, the Wings forced a turnover at the blueline and Anthony Mantha had a clear breakaway but Fleury seemed to know just where he was going to shoot the puck. Soon after, Nielsen set up Tomas Jurco for another great opportunity but he wasn’t able to find twine.

Throughout the majority of the opening frame, the Penguins controlled a lot of the play. They had some superb puck movement in the offensive zone and just seemed to be getting to those 50/50 pucks more often than not. The Wings hadn’t played poor, it was just obvious the Penguins were the better team.

But with 6:30 left in the period Mantha, Zetterberg and Tatar came roaring up the ice after a turnover at the Wings’ blueline. Mantha passed to Zetterberg in the slot who finished off the sequence with a backhand goal to tie Pavel Datsyuk for 7th on the Red Wings all-time goal list.

Zetterberg took a hooking penalty with 13 seconds left in the period but the Wings got through the rest of the 1st without much incident to stay up by 1 after 1.

Shots (on goal):

DET: 17 (7)

PIT: 17 (11)

2nd Period

After the penalty to Zetterberg expired, the Wings came rushing down the ice. Zetterberg turned, passed to the left circle where he found Ericsson who, instead of putting the puck on net, tried passing it to the slot and the puck ended up going wide.

Nielsen, Sheahan and Jurco had another great scoring chance where Nielsen passed the puck back to Ericsson at the point. Ericsson sent it towards the front of the net and Fleury stoned Jurco on the doorstep who would’ve scored if only he elevated the puck just a few inches more.

Miller and Green nearly connected a few minutes later, Miller on the left wing slid the puck over to Miller who nearly picked the top corner but sent the puck high and off the glass. Soon after, Ericsson took an interference penalty.

Coreau stood tall in net throughout the penalty kill and kept the Wings up by 1 despite some good chances for the Penguins. Seconds after the powerplay for Pittsburgh expired, Nielsen and Ericsson came back down the ice and Nielsen beat Fleury with a sweet snipe, far-side to put the Wings up by 2.

Ericsson’s definitely had a good start to the period (other than the penalty) along with Nielsen, both have jumped into the play on numerous occasions and Nielsen got rewarded for that here.

11:30 left in the period and Jared Coreau robbed Evgeni Malkin as he broken into the zone off of a Red Wings turnover.

Crosby and Malkin have both been stopped cold by Coreau on individual saves. So far so good! As I typed this he stopped Nick Bonino on another great chance too.

Side note: Patric Hornqvist seems to fall down an awful lot. He’s got about 40 pounds and 28 years of skating experience on me, but I’m confident I could knock him down out there. Just pointing that out. Side note x2: Later on in the period he purposefully took out Ericsson’s skates with his stick on a dangerous play. I don’t like that guy.

Unfortunately, Coreau’s shutout ended with 9 minutes left in the second frame at the hands of Phil Kessel. Malkin fed Kessel in front of the net, who was all alone, and he buried it past Coreau to cut the Wings’ lead in half. Kessel came right off the bench, wasn’t picked up by any Wing and he made them pay.

The Wings started to gradually lose control of the play late in the period but a timely penalty taken by Ian Cole, high-sticking on Larkin, gave them an opportunity to right the ship. And right the ship they did.

Just after the powerplay expired, Dylan Larkin RIPPED a wicked slapshot from the top of the right circle that netted him his team-leading 8th goal of the season and put the Wings back up by 2 with just under 2 to go in the 2nd period.

Welcome back to THE DUNGEON with D-Boss and EG $layer everybody.

That’s how we went to the locker room. Wings up 3-1 heading into the 2nd intermission. Not the strongest lead, but I’ll take it!

Shots (on goal):

DET: 34 (18)

PIT: 40 (25)

3rd Period

As you’d expect, the Penguins came out in the third period strong and tied it up just 2 minutes in on a shot from the point. Coreau looked to be screened by Rust or Kronwall and the puck found its way through into the back of the net. Suddenly we’ve got ourselves a game here.

Coreau came up big just a few minutes later again as the Penguins really started pushing for that 3rd goal. The Wings started to struggle with their zone exits due to the aggressive Pittsburgh defense at this point.

With 14 minutes left the Wings took yet another penalty and gave the Penguins a prime chance to tie this one back up, which they did on the delayed penalty. It looked like Coreau had gotten a piece of the initial shot but it snuck through his pads, off the post and into the net. Tough break for him as he played a great game up to that point.

The Wings showed some signs of life on the next couple of shifts, Tatar, Vanek, Glendening and Mantha all had good opportunities for the Wings but nothing got past Fleury as we closed in on the halfway point of the period.

For the second time tonight, the Red Wings seemed to forget all about Phil Kessel and with just over 9 minutes to play the Penguins fed him the puck on the doorstep and he buried his second goal of the night on a play similar to his first goal.

Perhaps the Wings should rethink their defensive strategy for the Kessel line. I think #81 warrants at least one person covering him.

Vanek to Larkin in front nearly tied this game back up, but Larkin couldn’t find a handle on the puck with Fleury way out of position. The Penguins came back down the ice, worked the puck down low and muscled it past Coreau for their fourth goal of the period, 5-3 Pittsburgh with 5:20 left. Jeff Blashill challenged, it looked as though there was some goaltender interference, the referees agreed and the Wings stayed alive in this one. Hornqvist appeared to literally grab Coreau’s arm while skating through the crease.

Easy call.

With 3:40 left Tomas Jurco had another prime scoring chance but he missed again. Fleury went to play the puck behind the net, missed, and Jurco sent the puck wide on an open net.

Just after, Coreau had to keep the Wings in this one again. This time on Letang out in front of the net. That’s at least 7 times the Penguins have had one of their superstars out in front of the net all alone tonight.

With 90 seconds left, Coreau went to the bench but despite their efforts the Red Wings couldn’t tie this one up and send it to overtime. Tatar took a tripping penalty inside the Wings’ blueline with the net empty, so the Penguins were awarded an empty net goal in a sort of odd sequence.

The Wings fall to the Penguins, 5-3 after the Pens scored 4 unanswered 3rd period goals. The Wings really wasted Coreau’s great start here, he was the only reason they stayed in this game as long as they did.

Final shots (on goal):

DET: 56 (31)

PIT: 64 (37)

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