NHL: Detroit Red Wings 2 Pittsburgh Penguins 7 recap and analysis

1st Period

Both teams had a very fast start of the game trying to score first, Pittsburgh had the majority of the scoring chances in the first minutes but they found an organized Detroit defense who not only stopped the visitors but also provide quality pucks for the forwards and one of them very bad lost by Cullen on the Red Wings blue line let Richards get the puck and put Athanasiou alone in front of Fleury who could not do anything to the precise slap shot on the farther post. The importance of the game let the players play so aggressive and the fights didn't way to arrive but the referees didn't assign any penalties.

2nd Period

In this season the Penguins are used to dominate the second frame, on this game they continue this trend  scoring 4 goals having the patience to continue to create chances. Crosby has been the biggest factor in this period, directly and indirectly because on the first goal he pushed a puck deep on the Red Wings who opened up the Kunitz goal, on the second goal, the power play one he drew the hooking penalty by Abdelkader, on the following power play Letang scored from the low left circle with a perfect slap shot, from the same zone some minutes later Hagelin beat a covered Mrazek with an high wrist shot. Detroit had an aggressive reaction trying with their forecheck to create chances and get back into the game, they had 4 scoring chances and 2 short handed but they haven't been able to score and in that moment score a very similar goal to the Letang's one.

3rd Period

The Red Wings were trailing by 3 and with just 20 minutes to play came on ice very aggressive and after 5 minutes they seemed to could get back in this game scoring a crazy PPG with Green who fooled Fleury with a shot who took a slow crazy bounce but the Penguins reestablished the 3 goals lead in a couple of minutes when Tatar turned the puck over at center icing leaving Bonino one on one against Howard who stopped the first shot but couldn't do anything on the second one by Fehr. The visitors closed the game out few minutes later when on a counterattack Hagelin served Kessel who give it back to his teammate who beat Howard under the crossbar. Pittsburgh had no mercy and they scored their 7th goal of the game with Bonino on a power play thanks to a shot under the crossbar from the goal crease with 5 minutes to play.

Very well deserved win for the Pens who nearly doubled on shots on goals their rivals and who played a very good hockey al game long even due to their injuries problems, on the other side the Red Wings didn't play at all, just few counterattacks and poor quality on create quality plays made them lose badly.

MY 3 stars of the game:

1 Bonino

2 Kessel

3 Hagelin