Crosby, Malkin power Penguins past Devils
NEWARK, N.J. -- Sidney Crosby recorded three points and Evgeni Malkin had a pair, including the 800th point of his NHL career, as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center.
The Penguins (23-8-5), who also beat the Devils (13-15-7) last Friday in Pittsburgh, won both ends of this home-and-home set that was separated by the three-day Christmas holiday break.
Pittsburgh erased a pair of early deficits on Tuesday and raised its record to a perfect 52-0 the past two seasons when leading after two periods of play.
Carl Hagelin added a third-period breakaway goal and Bryan Rust scored into an empty net for the Penguins while Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 21 saves in the victory.
Trailing 2-1 midway through the game, the Penguins pulled even at 10:56 of the second period on Crosby's league-leading 25th goal in 30 games this season, and then took their first lead on a Justin Schultz goal with 5.4 seconds remaining before the second intermission.
With the teams skating 4-on-4 and the clock winding down on the middle period, Crosby zipped a pass to Malkin over the Devils blue line. Malkin dropped a pass to Schultz and the Penguins defenseman weaved his way in on left wing before wiring a snap shot past New Jersey goaltender Cory Schneider in the final seconds to put Pittsburgh ahead 3-2.
The Devils had a pair of one-goal leads before the Penguins pulled ahead in the second. P.A. Parenteau opened the scoring just 1:18 into play, converting a 2-on-1 feed from Taylor Hall for his ninth goal of the season and fourth in his last seven games.
Malkin answered with a power-play goal, off a cross-ice pass by Crosby, to tie the game at 6:43 of the first period. The goal was Malkin's 15th and the point was the 800th of his NHL career.
New Jersey once again took the lead less than two minutes later with a power-play goal of its own. Adam Henrique hammered his ninth into a gaping net at 8:23 to put the Devils up 2-1.
That lead was lost when Crosby skated down the middle and buried a pretty Conor Sheary pass halfway through the second period.
NOTES: Three injured Penguins skated Tuesday morning for the first time since their recent respective injuries: D Kris Letang (lower body), D Trevor Daley (upper body) and RW Tom Kuhnhackl (lower body). ... They did not play, along with D Olli Maatta, who remained in Pittsburgh with an unspecified ailment. ... Three players returned to the Devils lineup Tuesday: RW Devante Smith-Pelly, RW Nick Lappin and D Kyle Quincey. ... New Jersey recalled D Yohann Auvito from AHL Albany on Tuesday, but he was a healthy scratch along with C Sergey Kalinin. ... Devils coach John Hynes said that injured C Jacob Josefson (upper body) is skating with the team and will be further evaluated later in the week.