Pittsburgh Penguins Drop Preseason Opener Against Detroit Red Wings
By Larry Snyder
The journey toward the 2014-15 NHL season began on Monday night as the Detroit Red Wings edged the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in exhibition action at Consol Energy Center.
Detroit converted on two of its first five power plays. The Red Wings first power-play goal came from left wing Tomas Tatar when he sent a wrister past Marc-Andre Fleury‘s blocker from the slot off a feed from Pavel Datsyuk along the right-wing boards at 9:45 of the first period.
Right wing Beau Bennett got the Black and Gold on the scoresheet with 7:04 left in the first when he fired a long wrist shot from above the right circle past Jimmy Howard‘s glove.
The tie was broken on the Red Wings second power-play goal that came with 3:55 remaining in the second period. Pavel Datsyuk collected a loose puck near the bottom of the right circle and lifted a shot over Fleury.
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Fleury stopped 18 of 20 shots in the first two periods for the Pens. Matt Murray took over between the pipes in the third and contributed seven stops.
At the other end of the ice, Howard started for the Red Wings and stopped 25 of 26 shots he faced in the first two periods. Petr Mrazek come on in the third and turned away an additional 10 shots on the night.
While the Pens were without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz, they still outshot the Red Wings 36-27.
The Penguins hit the road on Tuesday and head to the Buckeye State as they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:08 p.m. The game will not be televised.
Tuesday’s lineup for the exhibition contest at Nationwide Arena is scheduled to include forwards Craig Adams, Steve Downie, Andrew Ebbett, Marcel Goc, Kasperi Kapanen, Tom Kostopoulos, Tom Kuhnhackl, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Adam Payerl, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Zach Sill and Dominik Uher; defensemen Alex Boak, Brian Dumoulin, Christian Ehrhoff, Scott Harrington, Kris Letang, Harrison Ruopp, Philip Samuelsson; and goaltenders Thomas Greiss and Jeff Zatkoff.