Crosby has goal, 2 assists, Penguins defeat Panthers

PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists to extend his NHL record of consecutive seasons averaging at least a point per game to 21, and the Pittsburgh Penguins won 5-2 against the Florida Panthers at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday.

The 38-year-old center has 72 points (29 goals, 43 assists). He can play a maximum of 70 games after missing 12 this season due to injury. 

“It’s a stat,” Crosby said. “I think it speaks to the teams that we’ve had, the players that I’ve had the opportunity to play with. I think that’s a big part of it. I mean, it’s hard. It’s a stat, but you try to be consistent and, like I said, I’ve played on some great teams and played with some great players.”

Rickard Rakell scored twice to push his goal streak to five games (seven goals), and Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist for the Penguins (40-22-16), who have won four of five, including 9-4 against Florida on Saturday. Evgeni Malkin and Egor Chinakhov each had two assists. 

Arturs Silovs made 29 saves in his second of back-to-back starts. He made 19 saves on Saturday. 

Pittsburgh is second in the Metropolitan Division, six points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers.

“The way I coach and what I believe in is, when we have the puck, we have five players on the ice working together to go score a goal,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “When we don’t have the puck, we’re working to prevent goals. I felt strongly about this group early on, especially in training camp, that we had a lot of guys that would be able to contribute in different ways.  

“I’m excited to see we’ve gotten contributions from throughout the lineup. I think that’s important.” 

Carter Verhaeghe and Cole Schwindt scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 18 saves for the Panthers (37-37-3), who have lost five of seven. 

Florida was already eliminated from playoff contention with the loss on Saturday. 

“Better than it was yesterday,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Got behind it a little bit, but I don’t think we’d given a whole lot to get behind in that manner. Had some good penalty kills, some good action on the power play. Scored a goal. That’d be about it.” 

Elmer Soderblom put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 at 11:00 of the first period. Tarasov came out of the crease to retrieve the puck, but Connor Dewar hit the goalie’s stick, making the puck slip to Soderblom low in the left face-off circle for a wrist shot into an open net.

Schwindt tied it 1-1 at 16:15 when his wrist shot from the top of the left circle deflected off Silovs’ mask, dropped between his pads and trickled over the goal line. 

Crosby put the Penguins back up 2-1 just 35 seconds later at 16:50, sending a wrist shot from the left circle over Tarasov's glove into the top right corner. 

Rakell pushed the lead to 3-1 on a power-play goal at 19:12 with a one-timer to the blocker side after Crosby found him with a one-touch pass in the slot. 

Rakell chipped in a bouncing puck off a pass from Malkin behind the net to make to 4-1 at 18:08 of the second period.

The goal streak is Rakell's longest since 2017-18, when he had runs of six games (from Dec. 21 - Jan. 2) and five games (Feb. 25 - March 8). He also extended his point streak to eight games (13 points; 10 goals, three assists). 

Rust pushed the advantage to 5-1 at 3:48 of the third period. Crosby sent a spinning backhand pass from the left boards to Rust in the slot, where he put a backhand shot off Tarasov's blocker that rolled off the right pad into the net. 

Rust (501 points; 231 goals, 270 assists) passed 500 NHL points in his 708th game. 

“It’s really cool,” Rust said. “Obviously, I’ve been extremely fortunate to play in this League for a long time now. Hopefully, will be a few more years to go. I’ve played with some really good players that have helped me along the way, both at the beginning, middle and now in my career. So, I have to give a lot of credit to those guys.” 

Verhaeghe scored a power-play goal from between the circles to cut the deficit to 5-2 at 14:15. 

“They were better than us,” Verhaeghe said. “They were just better than us through the whole game. I mean, last two nights, they’re a really good team. Tough playing them. But we obviously have to play better.” 

NOTES: Crosby has two more point-per-game seasons than any player in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky is second with 19. ... Crosby has 16 seasons with at least 70 points, tied with Marcel Dionne and Ron Francis for the third-most all-time behind Gordie Howe (18) and Gretzky (17). ... Crosby tied Brett Hull (456) for the seventh-most even-strength goals in NHL history. Alex Ovechkin (617) is the only active player with more. ... Crosby and Malkin each had multiple points in the same game for the 171st time, passing Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin for the fifth-most by a duo in NHL history. ... Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner did not dress because of an upper-body injury. A recovery timeline was not provided.  ... Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov had two shots on goal, two blocks and one hit in 21:59 of ice time after missing the previous two games with a broken nose.