The Penguins went to Detroit with the following crew that’s road worthy for a preseason game.
The home Red Wings don’t dress their absolute best, but there’s still plenty of talent to work with tonight.
The beginning of the game looked like it would be a struggle, Detroit was owning the puck and recorded the first five shots on goal. The Pens could barely break out of their zone with possession, let alone touch the puck outside of it. Out of no where, a turnover saw Avery Hayes touch the puck for Ryan Shea to take off. Shea made a nice drive up the ice and laid a perfect pass over for Ben Kindel. Kindel had his opponent beaten going up the ice and got a nice shot away. 1-0 Pens.
The Pens got another in the second period, Philip Tomasino fired a hard centering pass that looked like it clicked off Tommy Novak, then bounced off the leg of the driving Filip Halander and Novak was able to slam it home as he flew by the net. 2-0.
Detroit spoils Tristan Jarry’s shutout bid with 3:40 to go in the third. Danton Heinen failed on a clear earlier and then Logan Pietila swung his skate and missed to breakup a pass, leaving a player all alone in front. 2-1 game.
The Red Wings pull their goalie but can’t score before the clock runs out.
The chart matched a lot of what the eye test said; Kindel, Shea, Hayes and Koivunen, who we didn’t touch on since there weren’t any singular big moments, were great. Maybe I’m too hard on Dumba, and frankly this was a friendlier view of St. Ivany’s night than I would have given. Fabbri was OK but down the line relative to others since he didn’t do a lot to move the needle. Then down the line some struggles for Heinen, Pietila, Puustinen and Imama – no disputes here.
One more preseason game down, and just two to go! The Pens will regroup briefly in Pittsburgh tomorrow before a group of them head up to Buffalo on Wednesday night.