Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists to match a Penguins legend as host Pittsburgh beat the Philadelphia Flyers 7-3 on Monday night.
The three assists tie Crosby with Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux as the franchise’s all-time leader with 1,033 each. They are tied for 12th in NHL history.
Lemieux, a minority owner of the Penguins, also had 690 goals in a career that spanned from 1984 to 2006 and totaled 17 seasons. He is considered one of the greatest players in NHL history. Crosby’s goal was the 602nd of his career and 10th of this season, the 20th campaign of his career.
Michael Bunting scored twice, Rickard Rakell had a goal and two assists, Bryan Rust added a goal and an assist and Philip Tomasino and Blake Lizotte also scored for Pittsburgh. Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson had two assists apiece, and Tristan Jarry made 24 saves for the victory.
Egor Zamula, Noah Cates and Sean Couturier scored for Philadelphia. Scott Laughton had two assists. Samuel Ersson stopped nine shots and surrendered five goals before being replaced by Aleksei Kolosov to start the third period. Kolosov made six saves on seven shots.
The Penguins led 4-1 after the first period.
Rust opened the scoring 1:29 into the game when he scored on a one-time slap shot from the top of the right circle off a pass from Crosby.
Zamula tied it 1-1 for the Flyers at 6:12.
Rakell gave Pittsburgh the lead with 8:07 left in the first, then Crosby assisted on two goals within 1:29 to tie Lemieux.
Crosby got the second assist on Bunting’s tap-in goal from just off the crease with 3:45 remaining in the opening period, and Tomasino tipped in Crosby’s pass with 2:16 left. Crosby has 29 assists on the season.
Goals by Cates at 4:29 and Couturier at 13:06 of the second period pulled the Flyers within 4-3. Bunting’s second goal, with 1:12 remaining in the middle period, gave the Penguins a 5-3 lead.
Crosby’s goal came into an empty net with 2:30 remaining, and Lizotte added a power-play goal with 12 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
