Red Wings lose to the Pens minus Sidney Crosby

**Admin** Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:59 am

The Pittsburgh Penguins accomplished about all that is possible on the ice the last four years by winning a Stanley Cup, playing for another and capturing some of the NHL’s top individual awards.

Everything, that is, except converting a penalty shot.

Chris Conner scored on Pittsburgh’s first successful penalty shot since 2007, Jordan Staal added his third goal in three games and the Sidney Crosby-less Penguins beat the injury-thinned Detroit Red Wings 4-1.

Conner made it 2-0 by going from his forehand to his backup to beat backup goalie Joey MacDonald between the pads 11:29 into the first period, about eight minutes after Staal scored. He was awarded the penalty shot after being hooked by Kris Draper.

Johan Franzen’s 20th goal got Detroit to within 2-1 at 17:28 of the second. Chris Kunitz needed only 30 seconds to restore Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead, deflecting Kronwall’s up-ice pass to Evgeni Malkin before scoring off a rebound of Pascal Dupuis’ backhander.

Two of the NHL’s best teams met for only the third time since facing each other in the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup finals—they split a pair of games last season—but a number of top names were missing.

Crosby, the NHL’s leading scorer, sat out a sixth consecutive game with a concussion. The Red Wings were without goalies Jimmy Howard and Chris Osgood, forwards Tomas Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Danny Cleary and defenseman Brad Stuart.

The Red Wings took 18 of a possible 26 points in their first 13 games after Datsyuk started their run of injuries by breaking his right hand, but Detroit’s lack of depth showed up as Pittsburgh won its third in a row.