Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to move into ninth on the NHL’s career scoring list as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Thursday night.
“We weren’t ready,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game. “They outworked us, outskated us. The attention to detail wasn’t there.”
The Penguins captain tied Hall of Famer Joe Sakic at 1,641 points with an assist on Bryan Rust’s first-period goal. Crosby then moved past Sakic with an assist on Drew O’Connor’s sixth goal of the season later in the period as the Penguins raced to a 4-1 advantage.
Rust also had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Oilers for the first time since Dec. 20, 2019. Alex Nedeljkovic made 40 stops for the Penguins and Rickard Rakell scored his team-high 21st goal as Pittsburgh won without injured center Evgeni Malkin.
McDavid finished with three assists. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to boost his season total to an NHL-best 31, but the Penguins beat Stuart Skinner four times in the first 14 minutes. Skinner settled down to finish with 21 saves, but it wasn’t enough as the Penguins ended Edmonton’s four-game winning streak.
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“I thought we came out better in the second (period); took some ground on them,” Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. “But, at the end of the night, we can’t dig ourselves that big of a hole. It’s hard to climb out of it in this league and we certainly had to pay the price tonight.”
Takeaways
Oilers: Their attention to detail in the first period was shaky. While Skinner wasn’t at his best, the Penguins also had little trouble generating chances.
Penguins: Pittsburgh remains a work in progress at midseason but showed it can compete with the league’s best on a given night.
Key moment
Crosby’s 12th goal 5:42 into the second put the Penguins up 5-1, some welcome wiggle room for a team that has struggled to hold multiple-goal leads.
Key stat
80 — The number of points Crosby needs to tie Penguins icon Mario Lemieux for eighth (1,723) on the career list.
Up next
Edmonton finishes a four-game trip at Chicago on Saturday. The Penguins continue a five-game homestand on Saturday against Ottawa.
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