Crosby Scores Twice, Wings Fall to Pens

The Detroit Red Wings added another member to the long list of forwards on the Injured Reserve on Saturday, along with adding another loss to the regulation loss column, bringing the team to 15-10-9.Justin Abdelkader was struck with a vicious hit by Deryk Engelland in the early parts of the first period and now is waiting to hear from the NHL’s concussion protocol team.

Although the Red Wings have been getting single points in the shootout and in overtime, the Penguins had their number on Saturday posting four unanswered goals after the Wings’ Niklas Kronwall netted one 6:09 into the first. It gave the Pens a solid 4-1 lead and eventual victory over the Wings.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were extremely in sync on the power play, both posting goals within four minutes of each other. Crosby scored from Jokinen and Malkin at 9:08 on the Power Play while Malkin followed with a PPG of his own; scoring at 12:50 into the first period. The two players gave the team a 2-1 lead going into the second period.

This season have has not fared well for the Wings, being down at any point in the game against many opponents. Jonas Gustavsson has been a little shaky as of late, collecting losses as each game passes. Yet, ‘Gus’ might not be the person to point fingers at.

Detroit has been plagued with injuries all season, most of which have been coming to their highly esteemed forwards who, while they are on the ice, have produced massive goal scoring and fundamentally sound execution.

Currently, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning are all on top of the Eastern Conference. They have been winning games consistently and pushing the Detroit Red Wings into the wild card slot for the playoff picture. The Lightning are currently missing their captain, Steven Stamkos, who is notorious for 60+ point seasons. and He is currently rehabilitating a broken tibia that he suffered early on in the season.

With the addition of Stamkos coming soon; along with the Pens and Bruins who are also currently on a hot streak, the continuing struggles of the Red Wings squad is are going to have to be short lived to stay competitive.

The Detroit Red Wings will yet again hit the ice Sunday, December 15 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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Information from the Detroit Red Wings was used in this report.

For more information on the Detroit Red Wings and NHL hockey from analysts and journalists at Michigan State University – tune into Octopi Hockeytown podcasts and embrace the Spartan debate at www.impact89fm.org/sports

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Austin Goodman is the host of Octopi Hockeytown for Impact Sports

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Scoring Summary:

1st Period:

DET – 6:09 – N. Kronwall (Wrist) J. Abdelkader, D. Alfredsson

PIT – 9:08 PPG – S. Crosby (Wrist) J. Jokinen, E. Malkin

PIT – 12:50 PPG – E. Malkin (Wrist) J. Jokinen

2nd Period:

PIT – 19:13 – O. Maatta (Tip-in) C. Kunitz, E. Malkin

3rd Period:

PIT – 14:33 – S. Crosby (Wrist) J. Vitale, C. Conner

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Three Stars:

First: Evgeni Malkin

(1G, 2A, +1, 1 shot, 2 PIM, 12:22 TOI)

Second: Jeff Zatkoff

(29 SA, 1GA, .966 SV%, 15-16EV, 13-13PP, 0-0SH)

Third: Chris Kunitz

(1A, 2 shots, 1 hit, 2PIM, 18:28 TOI)

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