RECAP: Red Wings fall to Penguins, 5-1

DETROIT --The Detroit Red Wings fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1, on Saturday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena.

The Penguins scored the game-opening goal at 9:25 of the first period, then netted a short-handed tally in the waning seconds of the same frame. Pittsburgh scored again at 11:16 of the second before Pius Suter notched his 14th goal of the season just 42 seconds later to narrow Detroit's deficit, 3-1. The Red Wings were unable to close the gap in the third, as the Penguins added two more goals to pull away for the 5-1 final.
"It was basically their season there for them," David Perron said. "So we knew they were gonna come out and we tried to match that. I think the message before the game was that we wanna be in those spots that they are next year or maybe those important games all the way through the season."
Goalie Ville Husso made 23 saves for Detroit, which dropped to 35-34-10 (80 points) this season. With the win, Pittsburgh moved to 40-30-10 (90 points) and took a one-point lead on the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders for the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
"That's a team fighting for their playoff lives," Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. "They played a really good game. We just had flashes of being good today, but just some of our egregious mistakes ended up on the wrong players' sticks and in the back of our net."
NEXT UP:The Red Wings will conclude their 2022-23 home slate on Monday by hosting the Dallas Stars for Fan Appreciation Night, presented by Coca-Cola, at Little Caesars Arena.

SCORING SUMMARY

Pittsburgh 1, Detroit 0 (9:25, 1st period)
Husso stopped Jeff Carter's shot from the right face-off circle and puck bounced off the boards to Alex Nylander, who finished a give-and-go sequence with Mikael Granlund to get the Penguins on the board first.
Pittsburgh 2, Detroit 0 (19:57, 1st period)
Pittsburgh forced a turnover on Detroit's power play, then Sidney Crosby countered when he whipped a backhander past Husso.
Pittsburgh 3, Detroit 0 (11:16, 2nd period)
Danton Heinen raced to the net, found Crosby's rebound and backhanded it out of mid-air to increase the Penguins' lead.
Detroit 1, Pittsburgh 3 (11:58, 2nd period)
The Red Wings executed a quick tic-tac-toe play as Andrew Copp carried the puck into the offensive zone. Copp sent a cross-ice pass to Suter and he quickly found Lucas Raymond in the high slot. Raymond one-timed it back to Copp, who set up Suter at the far post. With the assist, Raymond extended his point streak to four consecutive games.

Pittsburgh 4, Detroit 1 (3:01, 3rd period)
Crosby launched the puck from the top of the left face-off circle and scored a power-play goal, his second tally of the game, to record his 1,500th career NHL point. He became just the 15th player in league history to reach the milestone.
Pittsburgh 5, Detroit 1 (13:00, 3rd period)
Jason Zucker's shot from the right face-off dot was denied by Husso, but Evgeni Malkin buried the rebound in tight to cap the scoring and give the Penguins their biggest lead of the afternoon.

QUOTABLE

Lalonde on his takeways from Saturday's game
"He (Crosby) was pretty darn good. Some lessons learned in that game. There were some stretches where I thought we played pretty well. We had a really good start and it was very unfortunate to be down, 2-0. But those are growth mistakes."
Lalonde on Suter
"He's a very valuable player because he's smart. He can play in all different situations. He's centered our fourth line, been on our first line, kills penalties and plays the wing. The security of having him after our power play that next shift is very important. He's brought some stability and he's a useful player."
Perron on Raymond's recent stretch
"I love his energy. I love the way he's invested in the game. He's trying to play the right way too. I think he's making plays. I sit beside him in the room and I always tell him that the games he gets fiesty a little bit are the games he usually plays the best."