Penguins Overcome 2-0 Deficit, Defeat Red Wings, 3-2

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not have the best start to their Friday evening pre-season tilt against the Detroit Red Wings.

But they were able to storm back in convincing fashion.

The Penguins erased a 2-0 deficit and came back to beat the Red Wings, 3-2. Connor Dewar, Robby Fabbri, and Philip Tomasino notched three unanswered goals for the Penguins en route to the victory, and goaltender Arturs Silovs entered the game midway through the second period and stopped the seven shots he faced – including a few nice saves late in the game.

Tristan Jarry started in net for the Penguins and stopped 11 of 13 shots. 

“[Silovs] stood on his head there with some big saves,” Fabbri said. “We didn’t help ‘Jars’ out as much as we would have liked, but he played well as well. We can’t win without those two.”

Here are some thoughts and observations from this one:

– There are a handful of young forwards and defensemen on this training camp roster who probably deserve to, at least, have a shot at supplanting some veterans from NHL roster spots by the end of the pre-season.

But I don’t think the goaltending battle is being talked about enough.

Obviously, the injury to Joel Blomqvist – who is out for “at least four weeks” with a lower-body injury – opens up some of the logjam for the AHL and NHL spots. But Taylor Gauthier is also injured, which means the Penguins have open season on two of their affiliate goaltending slots.

As for the two NHL jobs? Again, GM and POHO Kyle Dubas said that the two best goaltenders will win the NHL roster spots. As of now, the two best goaltenders in this camp have been Silovs and Sergei Murashov.

‘I’m Happy It All Worked Out’: Fleury, Teammates Relish Chance To Share Ice One Last Time
Normally, NHL training camp is an all-business kind of affair, and that’s exactly how it’s been at Pittsburgh Penguins’ camp this year.

While I strongly believe Jarry will begin the season at the NHL level by default – and Murashov will begin in the AHL both for developmental purposes and because of Blomqvist going down – I’m not so sure he is going to end up getting the bulk of the starts. Silovs has shown his capability so far in camp, and – while it is only fair to give Jarry a bit more time and runway to show in camp, as this was his first pre-season appearance – he has a track record of performing well in big games.

Keep a watchful eye on those two as camp progresses. They are, likely, the two NHL goaltenders to start the season. But the battle between the two will be fun to watch. 

– When Dewar was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a last-minute deal before the 2025 trade deadline, I didn’t really think much of it. Defenseman Conor Timmins – who was traded on draft day to the Buffalo Sabres along with defensive prospect Isaac Belliveau for a second-round pick – was the bigger piece of that initial deal, and I assumed he would have a higher impact.

But Dewar has been a nice surprise for the Penguins, and he showed out Friday. He scored a Sidney Crosby-esque backhand in the first period to give the Penguins life, and he fought Detroit’s Carson Bantle at the beginning of the third to give the team a spark.

Even head coach Dan Muse said he’s seen a little bit of everything from the 5-foot-10, 187-pound forward.

“Him and [Blake] Lizotte have gotten a lot of time on the penalty kill in the last couple of games, and they’ve done a really good job,” Muse said. “He’s a guy that gets in on the forecheck… a big goal there. That was a time in the game, too, you talk about two big momentum swing we had, and he had his fingerprints all over it. Big goal there to get us going a little bit more offensively, and then a fight there to follow it up. And he had some other big moments there I thought late in the game as well.

“Those types of things… he’s showing his ability to impact the game and swing the momentum, and he’s showing it in different ways.”

I’m not saying Dewar has been some kind of huge revelation for the Penguins, but he has been more than solid since his acquisition. He’s fiesty, he drives the net, he’s put the puck in the back of the net semi-regularly for a fourth-liner, and he’s sound defensively. 

I think he’s been a really solid bottom-sixer for the Penguins.

Penguins Fall To Blue Jackets In Second Pre-Season Tilt
After a hard-fought 2-1 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens in their pre-season opener on Monday, the Pittsburgh Penguins looked to carry some of that momentum into their tilt against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.

– Another couple of forwards who stood out against Detroit? Tomasino and Fabbri.

While it’s easy to point to the three goal-scorers as the standouts of the game, they truly were the best players in this one.

Tomasino is someone who really needs to have a strong camp for the Penguins. This was his second game of the pre-season, and he has looked better and better. He was making an impact from the jump on Friday, creating scoring chances and hovering around the slot and net-front areas – and he also led the team in shots on goal with five.

Those are the kinds of things – as well as honing in the details – that Tomasino needs to continue doing in order to solidify his spot on the NHL roster.

I feel that Fabbri has had a pretty good camp so far, and his middle-drive to the net leading up to his goal was refreshing to watch. He’s almost always one of the hardest-working players on the ice, and he is a relentless forechecker with a little bit of bite – as well as a scoring touch. 

The former first-round pick (21st overall in 2014 by the St. Louis Blues) was signed to a paid tryout (PTO) contract prior to training camp. Yes, there are a lot of young forwards in the mix for roster spots, and there are a few injuries to veterans at the moment as well. Making the NHL roster out of camp is probably an uphill climb for Fabbri.

But, so far, I think he’s earned it. He will have to come out strong for the rest of the pre-season, though, to really make a strong case for himself.

– Saturday is Fleury day. Everyone in the city of Pittsburgh – including Fleury’s longtime teammates and good friends in Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang – is looking forward to it, and PPG Paints Arena is expected to be a packed house.

Get there early, folks. There is more construction around the arena than there was last season, and it’s going to be nuts down on Fifth Avenue tomorrow in celebration of an all-time great.

Ticket Prices For Fleury’s Final Game Keep Rising
When the Pittsburgh Penguins signed goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a paid tryout (PTO) contract on Friday, along with that came the announcement that he’d be appearing in one final pre-season game in Pittsburgh on Sept. 27 against the Columbus Blue Jackets before officially retiring from the NHL. 

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