Sidney Crosby ended a goal drought and added an assist Sunday to help lift the Pittsburgh Penguins over the visiting Detroit Red Wings 6-3.
Reilly Smith, Valtteri Puustinen and Lars Eller also had a goal and an assist each, and Michael Bunting and Drew O’Connor also scored for the Penguins, who have won two of three.
Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves against his former team.
Lucas Raymond scored twice and Christian Fischer also scored for the Red Wings, who have lost eight of nine.
Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon made 34 saves.
One second after a power play expired, Smith gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 10:10 of the first. Marcus Pettersson’s shot from the left point went off Smith, then off Detroit’s Moritz Seider and in the net.
Raymond tied it at 15:39 of the first on just Detroit’s third shot. He scored for the fourth straight game on a shot far-side shot from the left dot after Nedeljkovic had lost his stick.
Crosby ended an 11-game goal drought and gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead with 1:07 left in the first. A rebound went off a Red Wings player and to Crosby at the left hash mark. He took the puck with his skate, kicked it to his backhand and put it inside the right post.
Puustinen made it 3-1 23 seconds later for goals in back-to-back games. He roofed a shot from the right circle off a feed from Smith.
At 9:34 of the second, Bunting dove to swipe in a rebound that was moving slowly in the crease to push it to 4-1.
Fischer closed it to 4-2 at 17:35 of the second. Michael Rasmussen got to a rebound near the right post and fed Fischer for a one-timer from the left edge of the slot.
On a power play, Eller tipped in a feed from Crosby with 21 seconds left in the second to give Pittsburgh a 5-2 lead.
With a power play plus Lyon pulled, Raymond scored from the right hash marks at 16:37 of the third.
O’Connor added an empty-netter with 26 seconds left.
–Field Level Media