Red Wings Rally Past Penguins in Overtime

The Detroit Red Wings score two goals in the final three minutes of regulation and added another late in overtime to rally for a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night.

Down 3-1 with 2:39 remaining in the third period, Henrik Zetterberg scored to give Detroit life. With Red Wings’ goalie Jimmy Howard on the bench for an extra skater, Danny DeKeyser sent a pass through the neutral zone to Zetterberg at the blue line. Zetterberg jumped between the Pittsburgh defenders and into the slot to snap a shot past goalie Thomas Greiss.

It looked like the game would be over just minutes later, as the Penguins gained control of the puck in Detroit’s end with Howard back on the bench, but DeKeyser blocked a shot at the empty net and the Wings turned it the other way.

With 39 seconds left, Zetterberg fed Pavel Datsyuk all alone in front of Greiss. Datsyuk attempted to fake out the Pittsburgh goalie but, finding nowhere to go, threw a pass back to an open Niklas Kronwall, who fired a shot back past Greiss to tie things up with his second goal of the night.

Justin Abdelkader would give Detroit the win with 44 seconds left in the overtime period. Abdelkader carried the puck into the Pittsburgh zone along the right wing and sent a pass across to defenseman Brendan Smith for a shot on Greiss. Greiss knocked it aside and the Penguins recovered but Zetterberg was able to tip Paul Martin’s clearing attempt right to Abdelkader in the slot to whack past Greiss.

Pascal Dupuis had opened the game’s scoring at 5:12 of the first period, snapping a shot past Howard on a two-on-one with Blake Comeau.

Olli Maatta made it 2-0 with 8:54 left in the first, picking up the rebound of his own shot from the high slot and cutting in from the left wing corner to squeak a backhander through Howard.

With 5:00 left in the period, Kronwall got Detroit on the board, stepping around Patric Hornqvist in the high slot to snap a shot past Greiss.

Chris Kunitz made it 3-1 for Pittsburgh at 8:29 of the second period, rifling a shot from the right faceoff circle over Howard’s shoulder.

Howard finished the night with 23 saves on 26 shots while Greiss stopped 27 of 31 Detroit chances.

Neither team scored a power play goal on the night. Each had three tries with the extra attacker.