Detroit Red Wings at Pittsburgh Penguins, Game 4 (Wings lead 2-1)
The Pittsburgh Penguins looked like a different club at home on Tuesday night in beating Detroit 4-2 and making these Stanley Cup Finals a series again.
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury had his best game of the series, stopping 27 shots, and both Pittsburgh superstars contributed, with Evgeni Malkin assisting on the first three Penguins goals and Sidney Crosby also getting an assist, his first point of the series. Malkin is the first player to post 30 points in a single playoff year since 1996, when Colorado’s Joe Sakic had 34 in 22 games.
Pittsburgh is a -140 money line WagerWeb.com favorite to win tonight and even the series.
As strong as the Wings are in nearly every category, they are struggling on the penalty kill, ranking 14th out of the 16 playoff teams with a 71.4 percent kill rate.
In Game 3, Detroit gave up a pair of goals on three power-play chances, including Sergei Gonchar’s winner 10:29 into the third period. And this isn’t just a playoff problem, as the Wings ranked 25th in the NHL in penalty-killing during the season.
“For whatever reason, we’ve had some trouble with it,” defenseman Brad Stuart said. “If we knew exactly why, we would have corrected it. We’re getting some bad breaks. We’ve come up with some timely kills, but definitely, statistically this doesn’t look too good.”
The Pens’ power play is connecting at a 21.4 percent rate, sixth in the playoffs
There is good news for Detroit as Pavel Datsyuk, a finalist for NHL MVP and best defensive forward, practiced on Wednesday. He has missed five straight games with a foot injury.
“I feel more comfortable,” he said.
Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said Datsyuk “looked good” and was “zipping around,” adding his status would be determined definitively after the morning skate Thursday. Holland added that even if Datsyuk can’t play in Game 4 that he will be healthy enough to play at some point in the Cup finals.
Tonight’s game is Detroit’s fifth in eight games, so fatigue might be taking its toll. The Red Wings had only three shots in the third period of Game 3, their lowest total in any playoff period this season.
“Pav is really good on both ends of the ice, so it’s gonna be a big boost if he comes back,” Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg said. “For sure, it’d decrease my minutes. And our power play would definitely be better. He looked good (Wednesday), the best so far.”
Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said Kris Draper will play in Game 4 for the first time in this series, but did not know who he would scratch to get Draper in.
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