Crosby, Pens stymie Habs
Sidney Crosby ignited a rally with a highlight-reel goal and became the third active player with 700 career assists in the Penguins’ 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens last night in Pittsburgh.
Crosby picked up his 24th goal of the season when he knocked a pass from Jake Guentzel out of the air, deflected it toward the front of his stick and smacked it by Carey Price to tie it at 3 late in the second period.
Derick Brassard put the Penguins in front to stay, beating Price early in the third period as Pittsburgh avoided dropping both games of a back-to-back against also-rans Montreal and the New York Islanders.
Guentzel had a goal and two assists. His 21st goal of the season came off an assist from Crosby, the 700th of his career. Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins, who drew within two points of idle firstplace Washington in the Metropolitan Division. Casey DeSmith finished with 27 saves.
Jonathan Drouin, Nikita Scherbak and Jacob de la Rose scored for the Canadiens, who have dropped nine of their last 10 games. Price made 34 stops in his first start in a month due to a concussion.
The Penguins are in the midst of a sluggish stretch in which they’ve mixed performances where they look very much like a team capable of winning a third straight Cup with clunkers like their 4-1 loss to the fading Islanders on Tuesday.
Barely 24 hours later, the start was better after Malkin and Hornqvist gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead, but the play in their defensive zone was iffy at best.
Drouin scored off the rush late in the first period to give the Canadiens momentum. Scherbak tied it 8:19 into the second with a gorgeous shorthanded deke by DeSmith. Montreal briefly took the lead when de la Rose followed his own shot, skating by three guys in black sweaters to tap in his own rebound.
Crosby, however, responded 36 seconds later with his 406th career goal, one unlike any of the 405 that came before it and the Penguins were on their way to their 15th win in their last 16 games at PPG Paints Arena.
Coyotes 4, Sabres 1 — Clayton Keller had two assists to set the Arizona franchise record for most points by a rookie in a victory over host Buffalo in a matchup of the NHL’s two worst teams.
Rookie Dylan Strome scored in his first game after being called up from the minors. Derek Stepan had a goal and assist, and Richard Panik and Max Domi, with an empty-netter, also scored. Antti Raanta stopped 29 shots to improve to 12-4-4 in his past 20 starts.
Keller, Arizona’s 2016 first-round draft pick, extended his points streak to six games, in which he has two goals and five assists. He has 55 points, one more than Peter Mueller had in setting the rookie team record in 2007-08.