Nobody in Penguin Nation needs reminded that the last two times the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings faced off, the Penguins prevailed by the score of 2-1.
Sure, those games decided the winner of the 2009 Stanley Cup, and yesterday's nationally televised Pens' shootout victory over Detroit by the same 2-1 score didn't quite have the same stakes.
But Pittsburgh will take it, especially since it was the result of one of their best games in weeks.
The Penguins controlled play much of the afternoon, outshooting the Red Wings by a whopping 47-24 count. They kept Detroit bottled up in their own end and in the neutral zone most of the game, and when the 'Wings got into Pittsburgh's end, the Pens' did a great job generally keeping them to the outside and limiting quality scoring chances.
Still, there was intensity and a playoff feel to the contest -- not unexpected given the recent history between these two clubs -- and it resulted in an unsettled 1-1 score after 65 minutes.
Sidney Crosby got the Penguins' only regulation goal, scoring in the 2nd period after taking a cross-ice pass from defenseman Alex Goligoski on a 3-on-2 rush and deking Red Wings' netminder Jimmy Howard out of position before depositing it off the far post and in for a 1-0 lead.
That shift occurred right after the Pens' killed a penalty, and Head Coach Dan Byslma deserves some credit for getting Crosby out there on the ice on that shift without having to deal with the hounding of either Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg, or the defense pair of Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski.
Anyway, that advantage held up until around the mid-point of the third period when a shot by Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart clanged in off the post behind Pens' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Pittsburgh survived a 4-on-3 Detroit power play for near the last 90 seconds of overtime after defenseman Sergei Gonchar allowed Red Wings forward Valtteri Flippula to just sneak behind him and force a hooking penalty.
The Pens' PK was a strong 5-for-5 on the night.
In the shootout, Fleury stopped Pavel Datsyuk and Jason Williams, while Howard -- after stopping Kris Letang -- was then victimized by both Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on sweet backhand moves.
The Penguins are now 7-0 in the shootout this season.
A guy who had a fantastic game for Pittsburgh was Jordan Staal.
Staal played LW on a line with Evgeni Malkin most of the game and was dominant almost every time over the boards. He had a ton of good scoring chances and hit the crossbar twice on the same shift in the third period.
Bylsma was able to play Staal with Malkin becasue of the strong game he got from Wilkes-Barre call-up Mark Letetsu, who he played at center ice on the third line with wings Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke.
Letetsu played just about 10 minutes and fit in with the other 2/3 of the Pens' third line quite well, and I'll be interested to see if that trio stays together -- and Staal stays with Malkin -- in the Pens' next contest.
By the way, that's tonight, in another nationally televised matchup, this time against the Buffalo Sabres (7 PM EST, Versus).
The Penguins will have to work very hard to avoid a letdown tonight. It won't be easy facing a challenging Sabres squad after yesterday's strong, emotional win against the Red Wings, but they don't have a choice really. The Sabres are 2 points up on them in the conference standings, and the Pens' still trail New Jersey in the Atlantic Division, albeit by only 3 points after the Devils late collapse and loss against the Los Angeles Kings yesterday.
Recap tomorrow.
Let's Go Pens!
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