Sidney Crosby became Pittsburgh’s career leader in combined regular-season and playoff points by scoring one of his team’s three goals spanning 3:08 of the second period, and the host Penguins topped the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Tuesday night.
Tommy Novak gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead on a power play with 5:39 remaining in the second. Then 1:57 later, Crosby, off a Rickard Rakell faceoff win, beat Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen for his 1,896th combined point, surpassing fellow Penguins legend Mario Lemieux for the most in club history.
It was also Crosby’s 700th regular-season and playoff goal.
Anthony Mantha made it 4-1 when he followed up teammate Evgeni Malkin’s shot by successfully crashing the net at 17:29 of the second.
Justin Brazeau added a goal with two assists, Mantha logged two points and Connor Dewar also scored for the Penguins, who outshot the Canucks 14-3 in the middle frame en route to a third consecutive victory. Arturs Silovs made 23 saves for the win.
Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang also achieved a milestone, recording two assists on the night to reach 600 for his career.
Conor Garland scored for Vancouver, which fell to 3-1-0 on a five-game trip. Lankinen finished with 21 saves as the Canucks lost for the fifth time in their past six visits to Pittsburgh.
The Canucks played without several key performers. While Brock Boeser missed a second straight contest due to personal reasons, Filip Chytil (head) and Jonathan Lekkerimaki (shoulder/arm) were each placed on injured reserve this week. Fellow forward Teddy Blueger (leg) also sat out Tuesday.
Vancouver opened the scoring on its first shot of the night, just 1:18 into the contest. Garland got the puck at the Penguins’ blue line with space, skated to the right circle and sent a blast by Silovs, a former Canuck.
Pittsburgh equalized at 11:39 of the first. Parker Wotherspoon’s shot from the near point was deflected in off Dewar amid some net-front traffic.
Following the Penguins’ three-goal second-period outburst, Brazeau capped the scoring on a power play at 5:56 of the third.
