DETROIT // Ruslan Fedotenko scored the winning goal in overtime to help the Pittsburgh Penguins rally for a 7-6 revenge victory over Stanley Cup champions the Detroit Red Wings. Back at Joe Louis Arena for the first time since the teams met in last season's finals, the Penguins looked set for another loss until Jordan Staal's late hat-trick forced overtime and Fedotenko sealed the win 3:49 into the extra session.
"I knew as long as I kept working the way I have been the puck would go in," Staal said. "I'm working hard and if I keep doing the same thing I can keep it going through the season. "A team like that doesn't panic too often but we just kept putting pucks on net and get firing and sooner or later it's going to go in." Staal, who had just two goals in the first 14 games of the season, scored three times in a little over 11 minutes before he robbed Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk of the puck in overtime and set up Fedotenko, for the winner.
Sidney Crosby added a goal and two assists to the Pittsburgh effort while Maxine Talbot and the NHL's leading scorer Evgeni Malkin also found the net to give the team their fourth successive win. The first meeting of the season between the Penguins and Red Wings produced as many thrills as any of the six contests it took to decide the Stanley Cup. While it was just the 15th game in a long campaign for the Penguins, Crosby admitted he took extra satisfaction in the victory.
"It is gratifying," Crosby added. "Not in an over confident way, it just feels good. The last time we played them it wasn't the best." Crosby got the Penguins off to a flying start as he opened the scoring. However, it was the only time Pittsburgh would lead until overtime as the Red Wings took command, scoring twice in each of the first two periods to take a 4-2 lead into the third before the Penguins began their rally after Detroit had added another.
Detroit's goals came from six different scorers, Darren McCarty, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, Jiri Hudler and Henrik Zetterberg while former-Penguin Marian Hossa chipped in with two assists. * Reuters
