Red Wings ride third-period outburst to top Penguins
DETROIT -- Andreas Athanasiou took the puck in his own end and kept it all the way until he fired a shot over the glove of Marc-Andre Fleury.
The unassisted tally snapped a tie at 1:46 of the third period, which proved to be the game-winner in the Detroit Red Wings' 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at Joe Louis Arena Saturday night.
Pittsburgh defenseman David Warsofsky appeared to tie the game at 4 at 5:09 but the Red Wings challenged the tally, saying there was goaltender interference.
After review, the referees agreed and the goal was waved off.
Defenseman Mike Green scored with two seconds left on the power play at 11:51 for Detroit's fifth goal.
Henrik Zetterberg scored at 13:14 of the third to cap the outburst.
Defenseman Kris Letang gave the Penguins the early lead, scoring from the point just 27 seconds into the first period.
Letang now has a five-game point streak against the Red Wings, with four goals and four assists in the streak.
Then at 3:21 of the first period, Letang got tangled up with Red Wings forward Thomas Vanek in the Penguins' end and left the game, appearing to favor his left leg.
Letang returned to the bench at 11:30 and skated during a timeout. He took a shift at 12:30 but then immediately went back to the dressing room.
The Penguins made it 2-0 at 3:51 of the second period when Carl Hagelin found Evgeni Malkin in front and Malkin beat goaltender Jared Coreau five-hole.
The Red Wings cut the Penguins' lead to 2-1 at 9:01 of the second period when Gustav Nyquist beat Fleury with a shot to the top left corner.
The Wings tied the score at 13:28 of the second period when Vanek went to the net as Fleury was scrambling to get back and scored his 11th goal of the season.
Vanek is tied for the team lead in goals with Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin.
But the Red Wings put the Penguins on a power play and Pittsburgh capitalized with Matt Cullen's unassisted goal at 17:56.
The second period ended in a 3-3 tie after Detroit defenseman Green found Frans Nielsen at the left side of the net and Nielsen scored his ninth goal of the season with 53.1 seconds left.
NOTES: Red Wings G Jared Coreau made his seventh career start but first in the regular season at Joe Louis Arena. The Wings came into the game with 178 man-games lost to injury compared with 85 for the Penguins. ... The Penguins made their last regular-season visit to Joe Louis Arena. There are three Michigan natives on the Penguins roster: D Ian Cole, D Steve Oleksy and F Bryan Rust. Pittsburgh F Carl Hagelin played at the University of Michigan. ... The Penguins had won four straight games against the Red Wings, tying the longest streak in the history of the series (Feb. 13, 1974-Dec. 15, 1974). ... The Red Wings had three healthy scratches: D Ryan Sproul, F Steve Ott and F Tomas Jurco. The Penguins had two healthy scratches: Oleksy and F Eric Fehr.