Penguins back on track

Red Wings
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"He's an important part of our team," said Penguins coach Kevin Constantine. "It's good to have him back, he made all the saves he needed and adds a dimension with his puck skills to get us out of our zone. Two or three times a game, he takes the heat off of our defense."

Alexei Kovalev, Jan Hrdina and Dan Kesa scored for the Penguins, who swept the season series against Detroit for the first time since the 1990-91 season.

The game also featured the return of Jaromir Jagr, who sat out one game due to a groin injury.

"I was tired, I needed the rest mentally," said Jagr. "I think the five days off helped. "It was very important, the last few games, we didn't have any confidence. The players felt we couldn't win. It's very important to get that back, especially in the playoffs."

The loss ended Detroit's unbeaten at nine games (8-0-1). It was also the first time they lost since acquiring Chris Chelios, Ulf Samuelsson, Wendel Clark and Bill Ranford prior to the trading deadline.

"Hopefully it turns out to be a good thing for us," said Red Wings defenseman Larry Murphy. "You don't want to play a game like we did tonight and end up winning. Because then you're fooling yourself that you're better than you really are. We deserved to lose and I think that's probably the best thing to come out of it."