Penguins 5, Canucks 4
PITTSBURGH -- Center Evgeni Malkin's three goals allowed Pittsburgh to twice rally from two-goal deficits and the Penguins scored four consecutive goals in the third period to overcome Jannik Hansen's hat trick and stun the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 on Saturday.
The Canucks, completing a 3-2-1 road trip, led 3-1 following right wing Hansen's two goals in the first period and center Bo Horvat's goal in the third period, but Malkin -- recording his 10th career hat trick -- tied it with a pair of goals only 3:06 apart.
Third-line right winger Bryan Rust then made it 4-3 against Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller -- who has struggled against Pittsburgh during his career -- by turning far above the left circle and throwing the puck through multiple players from both teams and into the net for his second goal, with seven minutes remaining.
Penguins center Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net for his 16th and Hansen completed his own hat trick by trading goals in the final 1:23 of play. Hansen's three-goal game was the second of his career and gave him 15 for the season.
Malkin, who initially scored on a power play early in the second, previously made it 3-2 with a goal from behind the net that deflected off Canucks center Linden Vey's stick directly into the net at 7:16 of the third. He tied it at 10:22 with his 23rd of the season, a wrist shot from the left circle over Miller's glove.
Miller made 25 saves but fell to 8-15-3 in his career against Pittsburgh, with most of the games while with Buffalo. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, unexpectedly starting because of the postponement of the Penguins' scheduled game Sunday in Washington, stopped 28 shots.
Hansen got the Canucks off to a fast start in a game that started at 9:30 a.m. Vancouver time -- the perils of a West Coast team playing an early afternoon game on the East Coast -- by scoring only 27 seconds into the game on a wrister from the right circle, Vancouver's first shot after Hansen took Alexander Edler's up-ice pass and beat several Penguins players into their zone.
Hansen then scored short-handed for his 14th of the season with 3:25 remaining in the period, swatting a rebound into a wide-open right side of the net that Fleury abandoned to play right wing Derek Dorsett's shot from the opposite side of the ice.
But as well as the Canucks played early on as they wrapped up a six-game road trip, they took the game's first five penalties, including two in a span of 52 seconds early in the second period. The Penguins scored just six seconds into that two-man advantage when Canucks defenseman Luca Sbisa could not clear the puck following a face-off, allowing Malkin to tee up a slap shot from the right point.
NOTES: Former Pittsburgh Penguins C Brandon Sutter (sports hernia surgery) did not play Saturday against his former team but could play Tuesday for the Canucks against Nashville. ... Vancouver finished up a six-game road trip. ... Canucks G Ryan Miller started for the fifth time in six games after missing a month while injured. ... Penguins coach Mike Sullivan's last previous NHL coaching job was with Vancouver as an assistant under John Tortorella in 2013-14. ... Penguins D Kris Letang played despite a lower-body injury, but LW Chris Kunitz (lower body) was held out after he appeared to hurt his back during a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. ... With the Penguins' scheduled game Sunday at Washington already postponed by snow, Marc-Andre Fleury started in goal. Sullivan previously considered playing backup Jeff Zatkoff on Saturday and Fleury on Sunday. ... Penguins RW Beau Bennett (shoulder) played for the first time since Dec. 14. ... The Canucks scratched D Yannick Weber, LW Brandon Prust and RW Adam Cracknell. Pittsburgh held out Kunitz, D Ian Cole and LW Sergei Plotnikov.