Rust's 3 goals help Penguins belt Senators
PITTSBURGH -- Bryan Rust had his first career hat trick and Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel each had a goal and two assists Monday night as the Pittsburgh Penguins won a goal-fest, defeating the Ottawa Senators 8-5 at PPG Paints Arena.
It was the Penguins' third win in a row, lifting them to 35 points, tied with the New York Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks and one behind Montreal atop the league standings.
Ottawa had been 5-1-1 in its previous seven games.
Sidney Crosby, Matt Cullen and Justin Schultz also scored for Pittsburgh.
Kyle Turris, Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Dion Phaneuf had goals for the Senators. Stone and Karlsson each had three points.
Pittsburgh gave up two one-goal leads in the first period before forging ahead 5-4 after two periods.
Malkin's goal on a backhander made it 6-4 just 1:05 into the third period.
Phaneuf poked the puck in during a scramble in the crease, Ottawa's third power-play goal, to make it 6-5 at 6:17.
As if the game didn't have enough offense, Rust added a penalty shot goal on a backhander at 12:36 to make it 7-5. That, finally, chased Ottawa starting goaltender Craig Anderson after he made 36 saves.
Rust got his hat trick, into an empty net, at 17:32 for Pittsburgh's eighth goal.
Rust gave Pittsburgh a quick 1-0 lead. From the lower part of the left circle, he took a no-look pass from Malkin.
While Rust was beating Anderson between the pads at 1:45, Malkin got tripped by Ottawa's Zack Smith and fell hard on his backside. There was no penalty called. Malkin was slow to get up but remained in the game.
The assist extended Malkin's point streak to six games and his home point streak to 11 games.
Ottawa tied it at 1 at 8:12 of the first period when Ryan Dzingel set up Turris for a breakaway at the blue line. Turris lifted the puck past the glove of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Just 33 seconds later, Crosby restored the Penguins' advantage to 2-1 with his league-leading 17th goal of the season. He broke over the blue line, ignored Phaneuf's attempts to slow him and beat Anderson from the inner edge of the left circle.
Crosby, who extended his point streak to five games, avoided going two games in a row without a goal this season. The goal was his ninth in his past six games against the Senators.
Karlsson -- like Crosby his team's leading scorer -- answered at 13:44 of the first period for another tie at 2. From the right dot, he rifled a shot inside the far post.
Ottawa took its first lead at 3-2 during a power play. The puck got knocked high in the air and was headed for Fleury's back when Stone reached in and knocked it under the crossbar at 1:00 of the second period.
The Senators chased Fleury for Matt Murray when they extended their lead to 4-2 on Hoffman's power-play goal at 7:08 of the second period.
Fleury allowed four goals on 16 shots.
Cullen's backhander off a short-handed breakaway at 8:28 of the second period pulled Pittsburgh back within a goal at 4-3.
Kessel from the slot tied it again at 4 at 14:13 of the second period.
Schultz scored 24 seconds later from a similar spot for a 5-4 Pittsburgh lead.
NOTES: Pittsburgh G Marc-Andre Fleury started for a third straight game for the first time since G Matt Murray returned from a broken hand at the end of October. ... At the outset, the Penguins shuffled their second and third lines to look like this: LW Carl Hagelin, C Evgeni Malkin, RW Phil Kessel; LW Chris Kunitz, C Nick Bonino, RW Bryan Rust. ... Senators G Craig Anderson returned from a leave (wife's illness) and started instead of Mike Condon, who began the season with the Penguins and was picked up in a trade for when Anderson is away. ... Pittsburgh scratched Fs Tom Kuhnhackl and Jake Guentzel and D Steve Olesky. ... The Senators scratched D Marc Methot (lower body injury). ... The Penguins' sellout streak (regular season and playoffs) reached 445 games and surpassed eight million. It began Feb. 14, 2007, at Civic/Mellon Arena.