Penguins beat Red Wings Saturday night at The Joe

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – Sidney Crosby lit the lamp twice, Evgeni Malkin had a three-point night and Chesterfield native Jeff Zatkoff recorded the win in goal for Pittsburgh en route to a 4-1 Saturday night victory over Detroit at Joe Louis Arena.

Zatkoff, having played the second of back-to-back games for the Penguins, has recorded victories in his past four outings and improved to 5-2-0 this season with the win. He stopped 28 shots in his return to Michigan.

Niklas Kronwall scored the lone goal for Detroit, who went 0-for-5 on the power-play, including a five-minute opportunity. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh scored a pair of power-play goals, going 2-for-4 on the evening.

“Tonight, if the power-play clicks, we’re winning this game,” Kronwall said. “They’re a good team, they’re very talented. There wasn’t a lot of chances either way, I thought, but they really took advantage of theirs.”

Head coach Mike Babcock said his team’s compete level wasn’t where it needed to be, as they continue to search for home-ice success.

“They were without their top four ‘D’, they played yesterday, they came into our building, they left happy and they skated us,” Babcock said.

“Coming into tonight’s game, I think we were 5-6-6. We talked about getting it looked after, we didn’t do that tonight. We’ll get a new opportunity tomorrow, but you’ve got to work harder and compete better than we did tonight.”

It looked like a promising start for Detroit, as they struck early on home ice. At 6:09 of the first, Justin Abdelkader fed Kronwall at the point. His shot went off Crosby’s stick and bounced its way past Zatkoff for the 1-0 lead.

But unfortunately for Detroit, Crosby redeemed himself not too long after.

On the power-play, former Ferris State Bulldog Chris Kunitz let a shot go that Crosby picked up and buried to tie the game up at one aside and extend his league lead in points at the 9:08 mark.

Three minutes later, also with the man-advantage, Jussi Jokinen’s pass from the corner went off Brian Lashoff’s skate in front and right to Malkin, who buried his ninth of the year to put the Pens up 2-1.

With 29 seconds left in the opening period, Pittsburgh defenseman Derek Engelland came across on Abdelkader with a high hit to the head that shook up the former Michigan State Spartan. Engelland received a five-minute match penalty on the play, and Abdelkader did not return to the game following that incident.

“I saw the replay late,” Kronwall said of the hit. “I caught the tail-end of it and, to me, just what I saw, it looked like a pretty clear hit to the head.”

Babcock said that it’s obviously “something the league will have to look at.” The NHL player safety department’s official Twitter account stated that they will have an in-person hearing with Engelland on Wednesday.

“We’ve got a lot of guys out,” Babcock said. “We didn’t need to lose Abby. He’s a big heavy body for us who plays well for us and gives us pace. That hurt us, for sure.”

Rookie defenseman Olli Maatta potted a goal late in the second period to make it 3-1 in favor of Pittsburgh, taking a slap shot from the left circle that snuck past Gustavsson and bobbled around in the crease before crossing the line.

In the third, Drew Miller got called for high-sticking on Robert Bortuzzo, but replay indicated it was actually Crosby’s stick that hit Bortuzzo in the face.

Just seconds later, though, Detroit received some penalty luck as Luke Glendening’s shorthanded rush to the net drew a penalty from Malkin. But unfortunately for Malkin on the play, he headed off to the locker room for the second time in the game after crashing hard into the boards behind the Pittsburgh net.

Crosby added his second of the game with just over five minutes to play. Westland native and former Red Wing Chris Conner drew an assist on the goal.

Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith gave credit to Crosby and Malkin not just for their skill, but for their compete level throughout the game.

“We can rant and rave about how skilled those players are, but they competed, as well,” Smith said. “That’s what makes them the best players in the world, it’s because they do compete and they win battles. We just didn’t have that today.”

Despite their own team’s injuries, Kronwall said it’s not a valid excuse for losing, especially considering how banged up Pittsburgh currently is, too. The Pens are without the services of their top four defensemen, including Kris Letand who took warm-ups, but was an unexpected late scratch.

“Every team goes through injuries,” Kronwall said. “We’ve got to find a way through it. Every team goes through it, it’s hitting us a little bit. You’ve just got to stick to the program, keep believing in the process.

“We’re going to turn this ship around. We need everybody digging in and staying positive.”

Detroit returns to action Sunday afternoon, when the team faces off against Tampa Bay at Joe Louis Arena at 5 p.m.