Crosby strikes down Habs again
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby doesn’t really have an explanation for how he does what he does. He just does it.
So if you’re looking for clarity on how the Pittsburgh Penguins star managed to knock a pass from Jake Guentzel out of the air, deflect it forward to the front of his stick before tapping it by one of the best goaltenders on the planet to spark his team to a 5-3 win over Montreal, look elsewhere.
“You try to finish plays out in practice,” Crosby said after the 406th goal of his career, one unlike the 405 that came before it. “Sometimes it works out that you can do it in the game and sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately, it did today.”
Montreal rallied from a two-goal deficit to take a 3-2 lead 14:24 into the third on Jacob de la Rose’s fourth goal of the season. The advantage lasted less than a minute. Guentzel chipped a pass to Crosby and Crosby did the rest.
“Are you surprised, really?” said Canadiens goalie Carey Price, who finished with 34 saves in his return after missing a month due to a concussion. “It was a great play. I tried to hit it and he got it first, then he batted it back in. That’s pretty impressive.”
And pretty necessary for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, who avoided dropping both games of a back-toback against also-rans Montreal and the New York Islanders.
“It was a huge goal for us,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “It was an answer to the goal that they got to gain the lead to go in. To go in after two periods with a tie game was really important for us.”
Derick Brassard put the Penguins in front to stay by beating Price 2:38 into the third period and Crosby became the third active player with 700 career assists when he set up Guentzel for an insurance goal with less than two minutes to play.
“It was a weird second period but I think after the second we knew it was a big two points for us,” said Guentzel, who had a goal and two assists.