Red Wings end Penguins' point streak at nine games

PITTSBURGH-- Petr Mrazek made 24 saves and the Detroit Red Wings scored three third-period goals to end the Pittsburgh Penguins' nine-game point streak with a 5-2 win at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.
Mrazek made 34 saves on 36 shots in a 3-2 shootout win against the Washington Capitals on Saturday. He has won two straight after losing his previous four (0-3-1) to improve to 14-15-6 this season.
"I think Petr's game has been coming for a long time," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I think, going back for a while here, it was a stretch where he wasn't maybe getting the bounces, but he was playing good. Now, he's really starting to heat up. When Petr heats up, he's as good as anybody in the League. I thought he was excellent tonight."

WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Penguins highlights
Nick Jensen and Steve Ott scored for Detroit in the first period. Tomas Tatar and Thomas Vanek scored 1:49 apart on the Red Wings' first two shots of the third period.
Luke Glendening shot into an empty net with 51.3 seconds remaining.
Tom Kuhnhackl scored and Sidney Crosby got his NHL-leading 32nd goal for the Penguins.
Pittsburgh (36-14-8), which was 6-0-3 in its previous nine games, remains five points behind the Washington Capitals (85) for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins lost in regulation at home for the fourth time in 31 games this season (24-4-3).

"I just thought a couple of the goals [the Red Wings] got, they didn't have to work hard enough for," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "When our team is at its best, we certainly make it hard on our opponents to generate scoring chances and/or goals. I thought we gave them a couple tonight where they didn't have to work very hard for their opportunities."
Detroit (24-25-10) has won two straight after losing its previous five (0-4-1).
"You can't listen to the white noise that's out there," Ott said. "We know what's at stake for this organization and the heritage of this hockey club. Obviously, we're trying to play extremely hard for that every single night.
"We're not happy with the position we're in right now, but you know what? If we continue to chip away, there's a big carrot at the end of this season."
Jensen gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 8:48 into the first before Kuhnhackl tied it 1-1 on his first goal since Dec. 8 with 5:51 left. Ott restored Detroit's one-goal lead 2:20 later when he backhanded a shot past Matt Murray to make it 2-1.

Tatar scored 27 seconds into the third to extend the lead to 3-1. He passed to Henrik Zetterberg, who returned it for Tatar to shoot under Murray's glove.
Murray made 19 saves.
Vanek pushed it to 4-1 at 2:16 of the third and Crosby cut it to 4-2 seven seconds later before Glendening made it 5-2 with his empty-net goal.

Goal of the game

After receiving a pass from Justin Abdelkader, Jensen skated in on Murray before faking a slap shot, which froze the goaltender. Murray dove back, but failed to fully recover, and Jensen skated around him and shot inside the right post.

Save of the game

Cameron Gaunce shot off the end boards and Nick Bonino collected the puck to backhand a shot toward a seemingly open right side of Detroit's net. Mrazek stretched to make a glove save and freeze the puck with 10:22 remaining in the second period.

Highlight of the game

After intercepting a pass in the neutral zone, Darren Helm went on a breakaway but tripped forward. He recovered and got off a wrist shot, but was denied by Murray with 5:50 left in the second period.

Unsung performance of the game

The Red Wings didn't surrender a shot during a Penguins power play after Ott was called for interference at 9:47 of the third period to maintain a two-goal lead. Detroit killed each of Pittsburgh's four power plays.

They said it

"When we're playing good, we're playing good. We just have to have the consistency to stay at this level. We have one more game here before the bye and if we get two points there, we can enjoy our break." -- Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg
"I think we just have to execute. It comes down to that. We didn't do a good job of executing 5-on-5 and on our power play. They were a little more desperate, it seems like with the way they played." -- Penguins forward Sidney Crosby

Need to know

Red Wings defenseman Mike Green missed a second consecutive game because of an undisclosed illness. … Pittsburgh honored Crosby before the game for scoring his 1,000th NHL point on Thursday. Penguins owner Mario Lemieux presented him with a plaque made from the Civic Arena's roof.

What's next

Red Wings: Host the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-D, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)
Penguins: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, SNO, FS-CR, ROOT, NHL.TV)