Pens Beat Red Wings in OT Thriller

Zowie! Great game last night as the Pittsburgh Penguins came back from a 2 goal deficit with less than 10 minutes left in the 3rd period to beat the Detroit Red Wings 7-6 in overtime at the Joe Louis Arena. It was pretty much the Jordan Staal show as Staal scored 3 goals in the 3rd period to tie it up and then had the assist on Fedotenko's game-winner in OT.

Crosby Opens Scoring

Sidney Crosby popped in his 4th of the season on a backhand past Wings' goalie Chris Osgood at 4:34 into the game. Crosby's goal gave the Pens their only lead in the game during regulation. Darren McCarty scored his first goal of the year (and first since the 2005-06 season when he was playing with the Flames), and then Tomas Holmstrom tipped in Nicklas Lidstrom's shot for a powerplay goal and Holmstrom's 7th of the year. In the 2nd period, Johan Franzen put the Wings up 3-1 early in the period with a power play marker of his own.

Maxime Talbot's goal at 4:14 brought the Pens within one goal until Pavel Datsyuk put the Red Wings up 4-2 late in the period.

Then the flood gates opened in the 3rd period as the teams combined for 6 goals:
Zetterberg's power play goal for Detroit put them up 5-2; Malkin scored a power play goal, his 5th goal of the season and keeping his point scoring streak alive. He now has points in 11 straight games.

Then Jordan Staal went to work scoring his 3, 4, and 5th goals of the season (only his 2nd career hat trick). Jiri Hudler scored after Staal's goal made it 5-4. Then Staal scored at 15:51 and then he tied it up at 19:37 to sent the game to OT tied at 6-6. "It seemed like everything I touched went in," said Staal.

Ruslen Fedotenko: An Unlikely OT Hero

During the OT period, Staal stole the puck from Detroit as they were trying to clear their zone skating in and looking like he was going to shoot and try for his 4th of the game, but at the last second he cooly passed to Ruslen Fedotenko who was left unattended skating in from the right. Fedotenko easily scored past a surprised Osgood for the win.

Nicklas Lidstrom's 2 assists in the game gives him 949 career points, moving him past injured teammate Chris Chelios for ninth overall for most career points by a defenseman.