An overtime goal decided the first 2026 meeting between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings. They’ll match up again Saturday afternoon in Detroit.
Kris Letang scored 58 seconds into the extra session to give the Penguins a 4-3 home victory on Thursday night. Pittsburgh carries a three-game winning streak into the rematch.
“It’s always fun when you have, like, a milestone game and you do something you can remember,” said Letang, who was appearing in his 1,200th NHL game.
The Penguins haven’t tasted success often in overtime and shootouts this season. They’ve lost nine games in that fashion.
“Even though they found a way to tie it late, we stuck with it,” said Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson, who had two assists. “And, obviously, it’s nice to be able to finish it in overtime, which hasn’t been kind to us this year.”
Sidney Crosby scored the first two goals of the game to stake Pittsburgh to an early lead. Crosby has eight points during his current five-game point streak.
“I thought we were on our toes,” Crosby said. “Obviously, got one there on the power play. And then 5-on-5, I thought, throughout the night, we were good. … It was good for us to stay in it and find a way to win that one.”
The Red Wings rallied to tie it twice. Andrew Copp scored after the puck bounced oddly off the boards to forge a 2-2 tie early in the second period. Alex DeBrincat’s power-play goal with 2:58 remaining in regulation forced OT.
“Definitely not our best game,” DeBrincat said. “But to be able to get a point, definitely it feels like we should have gotten two (points) there, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. But definitely a big point for us when we’re not feeling our best and didn’t play our best.”
The three-game season series between the Eastern Conference clubs is usually hotly contested. Only once in the past eight years has either side swept the season series.
The third meeting this season is scheduled for March 31 in Pittsburgh.
“We’ve played that game a lot in this building in previous years, they’ve had that start and Crosby especially, and it’s gone haywire pretty quick,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “I liked the way we calmed it down and even when the power play wasn’t going early, we calmed it down and ended up getting one, then got a bounce in the second (period). We just calmed it down and it helped us to just play and keep going and get our legs into it.”
The Red Wings are barely clinging to the Atlantic Division lead. Streaking Tampa Bay is one point behind them and Montreal is two points out of first. Both of those teams have played two fewer games than Detroit.
“We feel we should have won that game, but we can go win Saturday and (earn back the points),” DeBrincat said.
Red Wings forward Patrick Kane remains stuck on 498 career goals. He needs two tallies to become the 50th player in NHL history to reach the coveted 500 mark.
Pittsburgh’s streak has moved it into the middle of the pack in the Metropolitan Division but only six points behind first-place Carolina.
–Field Level Media
