Wild third period leads to Red Wings’ overtime win over Penguins

Click the image above to see a full photo gallery from Thursday night's game. (Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey)
Click the image above to see a full photo gallery from Thursday night’s game. (Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey)

 

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – Despite an abysmal start Thursday night, Detroit exemplified the phrase ‘playing until the buzzer sounds’ with its showing at Joe Louis Arena.

Fueled by a two-goal, three-point game from defenseman Niklas Kronwall, a three-point game from captain Henrik Zetterberg and an overtime game-winner from Muskegon native Justin Abdelkader, the Red Wings scored twice in the last 2:39 of the game to come from behind, force overtime and ultimately defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3.

“We just found a way there at the end to push overtime and get a win,” Abdelkader said. “It was a huge two points. I think those games can bring momentum for your team even though you didn’t start out like you wanted to.”

Kronwall said that it’s refreshing to see a hard-nosed player like Abdelkader get rewarded for his efforts with a dramatic game-winner.

“Abby has been huge for us, whether he scores or not,” Kronwall said. “He’s always providing a lot of work ethic and just his physical play. He’s one of those guys you love to have on your team, hard to play against for the other team. Of course, you work hard, you get rewarded, and that’s what he’s doing right now for us.”

Head coach Mike Babcock echoed those thoughts and said it wasn’t the start his team wanted, nor the overall effort, but had to give credit for his team’s determination.

“We dug ourselves a hole,” Babcock said. “We spent a lot of the night trying to crawl our way back, but you have to give the guys a ton of credit; they stuck with it, Howie gave us a chance and we were able to get it done.”

The Red Wings came out strong, and looked poised to take advantage of potentially-tired Penguins legs – they played Wednesday night at home against Philadelphia. But a momentum-changing goal from Pascal Dupuis changed that quickly.

Tomas Tatar had an opportunity to put Detroit up on the Pens early, but Greiss turned his shot aside. Pavel Datsyuk picked up his rebound, tried to wait out Greiss on the backhand, but dropped the puck to Jakub Kindl instead. His shot was blocked, and four Red Wings were caught deep, which led to a Pittsburgh 2-on-1. Blake Comeau slid the puck over to Dupuis who roofed the puck past Howard for the 1-0 lead.

A penalty shortly thereafter allowed the Penguins to continue building momentum, but the Red Wings’ penalty kill stifled Pittsburgh to remain a perfect 19-for-19 on the season.

“We have to be a lot better than that,” Kronwall said of his team’s start. “I thought, as the game went on, we got better, but not as good as we need to be.”

That’s the same area Babcock was not pleased with, but the bench boss also added the team can play a lot better overall.

“It was a great comeback for us, but obviously we weren’t as good as we wanted to be,” Babcock said. “We can skate, we’re a hard-working group, and we didn’t skate and we didn’t work hard in the first period.”

Olli Maatta’s first of the season snuck past Howard as he skated out from the corner to extend the Pittsburgh lead to 2-0.

Kronwall took the puck just inside the Penguins’ zone, deked past Patric Hornqvist and released a wrister far side that beat Greiss to pull Detroit to within one.

At 8:29 of the middle frame, as the Penguins entered the Detroit zone, Hornqvist rushed the Red Wings goal, backing off the defense. That gave former Ferris State Bulldog Chris Kunitz ample time and space to walk down the left side and wire home his third of the year to make it 3-1 and regain a two-goal lead for his team.

Zetterberg cut that lead back down to one late with 2:39 remaining in the game, breaking down the middle and roofing a shot past Greiss. Kronwall picked up an assist on the play – the 300th point of his career.

With 38 seconds left and Howard pulled, Kronwall potted his second of the game to tie things up, finishing off an impressive passing play by Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

And in overtime, Abdelkader notched his third of the season with 44 seconds remaining in overtime, snapping home a loose puck in the high slot past Greiss to seal the comeback.

“It always feels so good to come from behind, when you’re down a couple goals with a few minutes left,” Kronwall said. “It’s all about finding a way, and I thought tonight we did a good job of just sticking with it, and of course to see Abby get the one… The crowd was awesome.”

Notes: Zetterberg also passed Ted Lindsay to move into eighth place all-time on the Red Wings’ scoring list. The Wings’ captain now has 730 during his NHL career.