Anthony Beauvillier scored twice, Joel Blomqvist made 29 saves in his NHL debut and the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 on Thursday night.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, each with two assists, were responsible for four of the six goals as the Penguins bounced back from the season-opening 6-0 home loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Marcus Pettersson, Erik Karlsson, Kevin Hayes and Drew O’Connor also scored for Pittsburgh.
Alex DeBrincat scored twice for the Red Wings in their opener. Vladimir Tarasenko added a goal.
Penguins: With his two assists, Crosby has eight multi-point games in his last 11 against the Red Wings. In 22 games against Detroit, the Pittsburgh captain had 18 goals and 28 assists. Pittsburgh is 10-2-2 in their last 14 games against the Red Wings and 5-2 in their last seven in Detroit.
Red Wings: Goaltender Ville Husso was pulled at 5:28 of the second period after allowing four goals on 14 shots. He failed to complete his final two starts of the 2023-24 season due to lower-body injuries. Husso’s last 60-minute game came on December 14 in a 2–1 loss to Carolina. Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry left the game in the second period due to an upper-body injury.
Tied 1-1 at the start of the second period, the Penguins scored three goals in a span of 2:28 early in the second period to take control.
The defensive improvements the Red Wings promised were not on display in their opener. Last season they conceded four or more goals in 39 of 82 matches.
Penguins: Saturday night in Toronto.
Red Wings: Host Nashville on Saturday night.
