Pittsburgh tied it 1-1 with 4:58 to go in the first period when Anthony Beauvillier banked a shot in off Ben Chiarot from below the goal line.
“Really good start actually,” Lalonde said about Detroit's first period. “Probably a little unfortunate to come out tied.”
Knocking in a rebound from the slot, Beauvillier’s second goal of the night made it 2-1 at 2:55 of the second period. Just 58 seconds later, Drew O’Connor put the Penguins ahead 3-1 when he one-timed Evgeni Malkin’s feed home.
“We got away from that first-period game that we had,” Larkin said. “Pucks were just going in.”
Pittsburgh added another goal at 5:28 of the second period when Marcus Pettersson scored against goalie Ville Husso with a shot from the point to make it 4-1. That ended Husso’s night, with netminder Cam Talbot coming in to replace him.
Husso allowed four goals on 14 shots, while Talbot allowed two goals on 14 shots.
“All those goals in the second were self-inflicted,” DeBrincat said. “Seemed like we couldn’t keep it out of the net that period. Hard to battle back from 4-1. Just got to get more juice at the start of the second period. The start of each period is very important for us. Obviously we didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”
Vladimir Tarasenko’s first goal with the Red Wings cut it to 4-2 at 12:32 of the second period. Just as a power play was expiring, the 32-year-old forward snapped a shot that went over Penguins goaltender Joel Blomqvist’s left shoulder. Mortiz Seider and DeBrincat had the assists.
“He finished, got some looks,” Lalonde said about Tarasenko. “That’s certainly a positive.”