a goal and set up another with an no-look pass and the Pittsburgh
Penguins matched a franchise record for most victories in their first
25 games, beating the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Wednesday night.
The Penguins are 17-8 with five
victories in six games since losing four in a row and five of six. The
only other seasons they won 17 of their first 25 were 1995-96 (17-5-3)
and 1994-95 (17-6-2), when there were tie games.
Crosby, held scoreless in five
consecutive games for the first time in his career earlier this season,
again tormented the Canadiens — the team he followed as a youngster
after Montreal drafted his father, Todd, in 1984.
Crosby has four goals and an assist
as the Penguins have outscored Montreal 9-2 in two games in Pittsburgh,
including a 6-1 victory on Oct. 28 in which Crosby had his only
three-goal game this season. Crosby has three goals and six assists in
seven games since the scoreless streak ended.
Wednesday's loss was the Canadiens'
last scheduled regular-season game in Mellon Arena, which was known as
the Civic Arena when they first played there in 1967. The Canadiens
finished with 44 wins, 33 losses and 14 ties there. The Penguins will
move into a new arena next season.
Montreal was coming off a 5-3 victory
over Columbus on Tuesday and was 3-0-1 in its previous four, but fell
behind 3-0 by late in the second period as Bill Guerin and Sergei
Gonchar also scored. Pittsburgh has won five of six.
Crosby scored near the midpoint of
the first period with a wrist shot from the left circle that sailed
past goalie Carey Price. Crosby missed getting his second goal in less
than a minute when he shot wide during a 2-on-1 break 29 seconds later.
Crosby's flurry shifted the momentum
Pittsburgh's way, and Guerin made it 2-0 with 6:41 gone in the second.
Evgeni Malkin controlled the puck in the corner and fed a short pass to
Guerin, whose initial attempt trickled off his stick and between
Price's goalie pads. Guerin pushed the puck into the net before Price
could control it.
Later in the second, Gonchar scored
his first goal in four games since missing 12 games with a broken left
wrist, a backhander from the slot created by Crosby's spin-o-rama pass
from the left circle that connected with Gonchar in stride. The assist
was Crosby's 279th, moving him past Ron Stackhouse and into 10th place
in franchise history.
Marc-Andre Fleury missed getting his
first shutout of the season and 16th of his career when Max Pacioretty
scored at 7:17 of the third. Fleury had a relatively quiet night in
goal, making 18 saves.
Notes
The Penguins have won their
last four against Montreal. … Crosby and Malkin each have points in
six of seven games. … Crosby has 11 goals and 12 assists in 16 career
games against Montreal; Malkin has seven goals and 13 assists in 14
games. … Price was 4-1-1 with a 2.11 goals-against average in his
previous six games. He made 27 saves.