The Pittsburgh Penguins trailed the Detroit Red Wings by three goals with just under 15 minutes remaining in regulation on Tuesday night. The VERSUS commentators wrote the Penguins off, Detroit coach Mike Babcock wrote the Penguins off, even all 36 Red Wing fans in attendance wrote the Penguins off.
Led by an Evgeni Malkin power play goal and three goals in 11 minutes from Jordan Staal, the Pens forced the game into overtime, where Ruslan Fedotenko capped off the comeback with the game winning goal.
Recap
The two teams felt each other out early in the game, with neither taking any chances for fear of making a mistake. A mistake wouldn't be needed for Sidney Crosby to put the Penguins on the scoreboard first.
Crosby scored the game's first goal at 4:34 in the first period on an unreal redirection of a Miroslav Satan pass in front of the net. Crosby elevated the puck about three feet off the ice, which was more than enough to put it over the shoulder of Chris Midget.
Seconds after the Crosby tally, Johan Franzen was called for hooking and the Pens went on the power play.
Detroit was able to kill the penalty, and Pittsburgh's momentum. Benedict Arnold had a solid two-on-one shorthanded chance, but Alex Goligoski made his first and last good play of the game to block Jokessa's shot attempt.
After the penalty kill, it was all Wings for the rest of the period. Darren McCarty tied the game at one, and Tomas Holmstrom deflected in a Lidstrom slap shot to give the Wings a 2-1 advantage heading into the first intermission.
Johan Franzen scored a quick goal to open the second period, extending the Wings' lead to two goals. The Horse or whatever his nickname is returned to the lineup tonight after missing the previous five contests.
Since being promoted to first line duties, Max Talbot has been playing some solid hockey. He was once again rewarded for his efforts with a goal at the 4:14 mark in the second.
Petr Sykora made the goal happen by taking the puck behind the net and throwing it to the front of the cage. Talbot drove hard to the crease and the puck deflected into the net off of Mad Max's skate. 3-2 Wings.
Much like the Wings did after turning the tide in the first period, they dominated the last half of the second period.
Pavel Datsyuk scored a goal that none of the 36 fans at Joke Louis Arena have seen yet, and Henrik Zetterjoke added another to give the Wings a commanding 5-2 lead by the 5:03 mark of the third period.
If the Penguins were going to have a chance in this game, they had to score quickly. They got their chance when Andreas Lilja and "The Horse" were sent to the box, giving the Pens a two man advantage.
The Pens worked the puck around, looking for the perfect shot. After coming up empty on the first half of the power play, Michel Therrien called a timeout to rest his troops and Mike Yeo got out the white board.
After the timeout, the Penguins executed their game plan to perfection. Satan got the puck on the half-wall and kicked it back to the point to Malkin. Mike Zigomanis screened Osjoke and Gino unleashed a wrist shot that induced several consecutive heart attacks for Mike Emrick: 5-3 Wings.
The Penguins' third line consisted of some arrangement of Jordan Staal, Mike Zigomanis, Matt Cooke, Tyler Kennedy, and Ruslan Fedotenko during tonight's game. All five players turned in impressive performances.
At 8:09 of the third, Staal found a loose puck in front of the net and snuck it past Osjoke to pull the Pens to within one goal.
You could feel a glorious comeback on the horizon. You were waiting to jump up off of your coach and flip the bird to Mike Babcock through your television screen.
Then, all of a sudden, Jiri "Where the" Hudler "At" seemingly ended the Pens' comeback when he beat Marc Andre Fleury on a wide open look at the net from the left point.
It was a terrible goal. The puck barely trickled in through the sixth-hole of Fleury. Too bad the score sheet doesn't include pictures.
For the next five minutes, the Penguins failed to break through the Red Wing trap. Michel Therrien was juggling lines, looking for the perfect combination.
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