from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,
The Pittsburgh Penguins were 17-2-1 in their past 20 games. The Detroit Red Wings had only won five times in their past 18 games. The Penguins play well at home and the Red Wings perform poorly on the road. Every statistical analysis screamed that the Red Wings would be in trouble against the Penguins.
But goaltender Calvin Pickard turned in a memorable performance and Detroit’s bottom six forwards created two goals to allow the Red Wings to post a 3-2 shootout win against the Penguins. The takeaways:
The Pickard 36-save performance illustrates the importance of goaltending depth in this COVID-19 season. Alex Nedelljkovic needed a day off after seven consecutive starts. He will play Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thomas Greiss is still unavailable because he is just out of COVID-19 protocols. Enter Pickard to pick up his first win since the 2020-21 season.
He played a strong game against a Pittsburgh Penguins team that has been averaging four goals per game for the past 20 games. He stopped Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout.
from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
This was a different Red Wings team Friday in Pittsburgh.
After a poor defensive game Wednesday against Chicago, the Wings shut down a powerful Penguins team, and defeated the Penguins 3-2 in a shootout.
The Wings won the shootout 1-0, with Lucas Raymond scoring the lone goal.
Goals from unexpected sources, Givani Smith and Filip Zadina (power play), sparked the Wings, who also received a fine goaltending effort from Calvin Pickard who stopped 36 shots in his first start since May 8, 2011.
Below, watch the extended game highlights.
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