Red Wings defeat Penguins 3-1 in Game 1 of NHL Final

With only a couple of days rest the Red Wings came out strong to control the first period. Unasisted, Brad Stuart was the first to put Detroit on the board at 13:38. Five minutes followed and Ruslan Fedotenko put in the equalizer to finish the 1st period 1-1.

With both Pavel Datsyuk and Kris Draper sitting out, the Wings remained composed in the second period. Johan Franzen, after touches off Rafalski and Zetterberg scored a goal late in the period to put Detroit up 2-1 over Pittsburgh.

The second intermission didn’t stop Detroit’s momentum. 2:46 minutes into the third period, Muskegon native and MSU Spartan Justin Abdelkader scored his first NHL playoff goal to strengthen the lead. Pittsburgh continued to strike at the net throughout the 3rd but couldn’t get the puck past Osgood. Even with an empty net for the final 90 seconds the Wings kept control and took Game 1 with confidence at home.

Go Wings!

Game 2 is Sunday at 8 P.M. on CBC (HD),NBC (HD),RDS (HD)