Sidney Crosby, Penguins spoil Guentzel's return to Pittsburgh, beat Hurricanes 4-1

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists and the Penguins scored two goals on five shots in the second period, spoiling Jake Guentzel's return to Pittsburgh with a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Bryan Rust scored his 23rd of the season and his seventh goal in 10 games. Jesse Puljujarvi added his third of the season — and second in as many games — for the Penguins, who were outshot 3114 in the last two periods. Drew O'connor added an empty-net goal at 18:04 of the third.

"We didn't give them much," Rust said. "They had a lot of shots from the outside, I thought we defended in front of our net well and took what the game gave us. Overall, we played hard and smart."

Crosby scored his 35th goal of the season and became the first active player, and 14th in NHL history, with 15 or more 40-assist seasons. He also collected his 239th career multi-assist game and passed Joe Thornton for 10th in NHL history. The Penguins snapped a three-game losing streak and rebounded from an overtime loss at Colorado on Sunday, when they squandered a fourgoal lead.

Alex Nedeljkovic, Carolina's secondround draft pick in 2014, stopped 38 shots for Pittsburgh.

"You know (Guentzel) wanted to score," Nedeljkovic said. "You know he wanted to have a good night and their line was buzzing. But at the same time, I think every one of us in here probably wanted to keep him off the scoreboard as best we could."

Dmitry Orlov scored his sixth for Carolina, which lost for the second time in three games and had its seven-game point streak halted. Pyotr Kochetkov had 18 saves.

Pittsburgh traded Guentzel to Carolina on March 7, along with Ty Smith, in exchange for Michael Bunting, three prospects and draft picks. Guentzel had six shots in 21:06 of ice time on Tuesday.