In a preseason battle of “B” teams, Detroit’s youth led the Red Wings to a 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Both Detroit and Pittsburgh iced lineups devoid of many of their top stars. Pittsburgh was without Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel while the Red Wings went without Henrik Zetterberg, Brad Richards, and most of their regular regular blueline corps.
Tyler Bertuzzi opened the scoring for Detroit with 6:37 left in the opening period, slipping a shot through Pittsburgh netminder Matthew Murray that just made it across the goal line.
With 3:16 left in the period, Dylan Larkin put the rebound of a Teemu Pulkkinen chance into the open side of Murray’s net on a five-on three.
Just 1:27 later, Pulkkinen snapped a shot from in close over Murray’s shoulder to make it 3-0 with another power play goal.
Drew Miller scored the only goal of the second period, deflecting a Brian Lashoff shot past Murray to put the Red Wings up 4-0 with 2:32 left in the second period.
Pulkkinen added his second just 1:08 into the third, taking a feed from Bertuzzi to break down the right wing and snap a shot past Murray for a 5-0 lead.
Beau Bennett ended the shutout bid with 9:16 left in regulation, putting a rebound chance past Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard off a net-front scramble.
Larkin rounded out the scoring with ten seconds remaining, whipping a shot from the bottom of the left circle past Murray off a quick passing play.
Howard finished the night with 34 saves on 35 shots. Murray made 21 saves on 27 Detroit chances.
The two teams played a three-on-three overtime after the game as a test run of the NHL’s new tiebreaker format. Pittsburgh scored a late shorthanded goal to end it.
