Crosby collects 4 points in return, Pens rout Wild
PITTSBURGH >> Sidney Crosby watched the Pittsburgh Penguins thrive in his absence. The longtime captain pledged he would simply focus on doing his part to keep the Penguins rolling in his return from a two-month layoff.
Crosby held up his end of the bargain, collecting a goal and three assists in his first game back from abdominal surgery as the Penguins rolled past Minnesota 7-3 Tuesday night.
Crosby needed less than eight minutes to pick up his first point since before Halloween when he assisted on Evgeni Malkin’s first goal of the night 7:57 into the game. Crosby added his sixth goal of the season in the third period when he slipped a backhand past Devan Dubnyk as the Penguins rolled to their fourth straight victory.
Malkin finished with two goals and a pretty no-look drop pass to set up Bryan Rust’s 19th of the season. Jared McCann scored for the fourth time in five games for Pittsburgh, Dominik Simon added his fifth, and Tristan Jarry stopped 25 shots to improve to 11-0-1 in his last 12 starts against Western Conference opponents.
Crosby skated 17:53 after missing 28 games following abdominal surgery and looked just as dangerous as ever as the Penguins pulled within four points of first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division.
Zach Parise scored twice and Marcus Foligno added his ninth for the Wild but Minnesota never really got back in it after spotting the Penguins a four-goal lead. Dubnyk finished with 22 saves, but the Wild fell to 1-5-1 in their last seven games.
ISLANDERS 8, RED WINGS 2 >> Brock Nelson scored twice and New York routed Detroit.
New York scored three times in the first eight minutes, a rousing response after a lopsided road loss to the crosstown Rangers a night earlier. The league-worst Red Wings were out of it early, and Thomas Greiss made 34 saves to back the Islanders.
BLUE JACKETS 3, BRUINS 0 >> Elvis Merzlikins recorded his second consecutive shutout and Columbus beat Atlantic Division-leading Boston for its fourth win in five games.
Alexander Wennberg, Kevin Stenlund and Riley Nash scored for Columbus.
Boston goaltender Jaroslav Halak entered the game at 1:12 of the first period after Tukka Rask was inadvertently struck in the head by an elbow in the crease. Halak stopped 24 shots in relief as the Bruins lost their second straight and were shut out for the first time this season.
SABRES 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2 >> Jack Eichel scored the go-ahead goal on an end-to-end rush 7:57 into the third period in Buffalo’s win over slumping Vegas.
The goal was Eichel’s careerhigh-matching 28th of the season and came in a game in which he added an assist to become Buffalo’s first player in 27 years to reach the 60-point mark in 46 or fewer games.
Caps extend Backstrom
WASHINGTON >> Nicklas Backstrom isn’t leaving the team he lifted the Stanley Cup with and is getting paid handsomely to stick around for the long haul.
The Washington Capitals on Tuesday signed Backstrom to a $46 million, five-year contract extension that locks him up through the 2024-25 season.
The playmaking Swedish center will count $9.2 million against the salary cap when this contract kicks in next season, a significant raise from his current teamfriendly deal.