Chris Conner slips a penalty shot under the pad of Detroit goalie Joey McDonald for a goal in first period in Pittsburgh Tuesday. The Penguins posted a 4-2 victory over the Red Wings.

PITTSBURGH — 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 Tuesday night.

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.

“I kind of knew what I was going to do the whole time going in. You just have to execute and make it work,” Conner said.

Pittsburgh had been 0 for 12 on penalty shots since Jarkko Ruutu scored against Toronto Jan. 20, 2007, coincidentally with the same move that Conner used.

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.

Given a 2-0 lead, All-Star goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made the lead stand up by making 36 saves

Chris Kunitz and Matt Cooke also scored goals.