PITTSBURGH -- The No. 1 line the Pittsburgh Penguins envisioned in July finally came together in February.

Right winger Phil Kessel scored twice after being moved up to Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby's top line and the Penguins broke out of a brief scoring slump with a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.

Kessel, the former high-scoring Toronto Maple Leafs winger, was acquired on July 1 to play on Crosby's line, only to be shifted to center Evgeni Malkin's line after only seven games.

But after the Penguins scored only three goals in the past three games, coach Mike Sullivan decided to replace right winger Patric Hornqvist with Kessel early in the game, and the move immediately paid off. Kessel had his fourth two-goal game of the season, Crosby had a goal and an assist and left winger Chris Kunitz had two assists.

"We've talked about that for a few days now, and the coaching staff decided to go with it for this game and see if we could get some chemistry, get a spark and score some goals," Sullivan said.

The Penguins got all three -- plus a season high-tying six goals.

"They got some odd-man rushes right away, kind of got us a little bit on our heels," Detroit left winger Henrik Zetterberg said. "It's tough to play like that as a team."

Penguins goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury made 35 saves, including three during a remarkable 12-second sequence late in the second period that included a left pad save after he was shoved into the net by Red Wings right winger Justin Abdelkader.

"I knew I was going back into the back of the net, so I wanted to keep something in front," Fleury said. "It was close, right on the goal line."

Kessel was largely responsible for keeping the Penguins in front.

With the score tied at 2 early in the second period, Crosby attracted three defenders as he drove down the slot -- leaving Kessel wide open in the right circle for a wrist shot that sailed past goalie Petr Mrazek, who was benched after allowing five goals on 32 shots.

Kessel didn't learn about his new linemates until right before the game but said, "It was a good night."

After fourth-line left winger Scott Wilson scored his first NHL goal later in the second, Kessel put the Penguins up 5-2 in the third by scoring off a rebound of defenseman Olli Maatta's slap shot, for his 18th goal.

"When he gets inside the dots and is engaged, he's hard to handle," Sullivan said of Kessel. "When he's at his best, he's getting his opportunities from inside the dots. That's something we've been preaching to him for a while now."

Zetterberg ended the run of three consecutive Penguins goals midway through the third -- his 12th of the season and 10th in 16 career games against Pittsburgh. But Crosby scored his 15th goal in his last 11 games at Consol Energy Center into an empty net in the final minute.

The Penguins, 1-1-1 in their previous three, took the early lead with a goal from an unlikely source -- defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who hadn't scored in 34 games.

Lovejoy threw a seemingly harmless wrist shot on net from beyond the right circle midway that deflected off Detroit right winger Darren Helm's stick and past Mrazek, who shook his head in disgust after the puck went in midway through the first period.

"It was a lucky bounce," Mrazek said. "(But) they came hard and had a more chances than we had."

But the Red Wings, winless in their previous three road games, answered less than four minutes later as right winger Tomas Jurco's grabbed left winger Gustav Nyquist's pass to the slot and beat Fleury with a hard wrist shot for his fourth goal.

Matt Cullen, filling in again as the Penguins' second-line center as an injured Malkin missed a seventh consecutive game, restored Pittsburgh's lead late in the period with his seventh goal, off a deflected shot that rebounded to him in the slot.

Red Wings left winger Dylan Larkin tied it again only 2:19 into the second on a backhander in front of the net. But the Penguins' new No. 1 line put Pittsburgh back into the lead only 24 seconds later, when Crosby -- scoreless in his previous three games -- set up Kessel's wrist shot from the right circle, for his 17th goal.

The Penguins opened up the first two-goal lead of the game at 4-2 late in the second when Wilson scored. Right winger Conor Sheary held off two defenders behind the net to thread a pass to Wilson, whose one-timer from the left circle cleanly beat Mrazek.

The goal was the first by either the Penguins' third or fourth line since Sheary scored against Anaheim on Feb. 8.

NOTES: The Red Wings returned to Petr Mrazek in goal after G Jimmy Howard played during a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday, but have now allowed 15 goals in three games. Mrazek also was in net for Pittsburgh's 5-2 win in Detroit on Dec. 31. ... Red Wings D Jonathan Ericsson missed a third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. ... Each team had only a single power play. ... Penguins C Sidney Crosby said of the team's recent inability to score, with three goals in three games: "This time of year is a grind. The games are tough. Everyone is playing at a high level." ... The Red Wings scratched Ericsson, LW Teemu Pulkkinen and D Jakub Kindl. ... Pittsburgh held out Malkin, LW Sergei Plotnikov and D Ian Cole.