Red Wings hold off Penguins for 3rd straight win

DETROIT -- Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist for the Detroit Red Wings, who held off the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 6-3 win at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday.

DeBrincat has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his first four games with Detroit since being acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on July 9.

“This kind of start makes everything easier, and a lot of that is because of my linemates and teammates,” he said. “We have so many scoring options that it is hard for anyone to cover all of them.”

Andrew Copp scored twice, Dylan Larkin had three assists, and Ville Husso made 30 saves for Detroit (3-1-0), which has won three straight.

“It is only four games, but I think this has been a good stretch coming off a very good camp,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “We haven’t been perfect, we had some mistakes tonight that led to some easy offense, but we’ve played four good games against tough opponents.”

Erik Karlsson had a goal and two assists, and Tristan Jarry made 23 saves for Pittsburgh (2-2-0).

“Detroit’s a good team, and we just lost ourselves for six or seven minutes in the second period,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “They scored a couple goals, but we fought back into the game.”

Evgeni Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead 53 seconds into the first period, scoring near the left post off a cross-slot backhand pass from Reilly Smith.

DeBrincat tied it 1-1 at 12:23 when he tapped in a backdoor pass from Austin Czarnik.

Ben Chiarot put the Red Wings ahead 2-1 at 5:21 of the second period, beating Jarry glove side through a screen from the left circle.

Copp made it 3-1 at 15:42 with a redirection of Jeff Petry’s point shot.

Less than a minute later, Husso made a point-blank save on a between-the-legs shot from Sidney Crosby. David Perron then scored a power-play goal on a rebound in front to extend the lead to 4-1 at 17:49.

Karlsson made it 4-2 at 3:37 of the third period, scoring glove side from the top of the left circle. It was his first goal with Pittsburgh since being acquired from the San Jose Sharks in a three-team trade also involving the Montreal Canadiens on Aug. 6.

Bryan Rust cut it to 4-3 at 13:03 on a deflection near the left post. His goal came after Jarry made a blocker save on a penalty shot from Copp at 7:17.

“I liked our start in the third period, we could have easily extended the lead with a fifth goal, but we had a couple plays where we tracked back into our zone and didn’t get coverages sorted out,” Lalonde said. “They got two goals through traffic, and that put us back on our heels.”

Copp scored an empty-net goal to make it 5-3 at 18:28, and after Pittsburgh unsuccessfully challenged the play for offside, DeBrincat scored a power-play goal into an empty net at 18:49 for the 6-3 final.

“I liked what we showed in the third period, but we need to play harder in front of the net,” Malkin said. “We need to block more shots and clear more rebounds.”

NOTES: Husso made 16 of his 30 saves in the third period. … Malkin has 42 points (18 goals, 24 assists) in 28 career games against the Red Wings. ... Crosby had the primary assist on Karlsson's goal. It was his 1,507th point (553 goals, 954 assists) with the Penguins, which passed Ray Bourque (1,506 with the Boston Bruins) for the sixth-most with one franchise in NHL history.