The victory ended a seven-game road losing streak for Pittsburgh, which was 0-6-1 away from home since a 7-0 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers in its season opener on Sept. 30.
Egor Chinakhov scored, and Evgeni Malkin had three assists for the Penguins (6-9-2), who had lost four straight (0-3-1). Kris Letang had two assists, and Sergei Murashov made 26 saves for his first win of the season.
Corey Perry and Alex Laferriere scored for the Kings (5-8-2), who are 2-2-0 in the first four game of a seven-game homestand. Darcy Kuemper made 14 saves.
Novak opened the scoring 1:52 into the first period. He was at the top of the crease to prevent Kuemper from cleanly catching Declan Carlile’s long shot from the blue line, and Novak collected the rebound before beating Kuemper with a wrist shot from the edge of the left face-off circle.
Novak made it 2-0 at 5:10. He took the puck away from Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson in the defensive zone, starting a rush the other way, and pounced on the rebound of Ben Kindel’s shot.
Perry cut the deficit to 2-1 at 9:55 after Anderson’s wrist shot went wide left of the net and caromed off the glass into the blue paint, where Perry knocked it in out of midair.
Chinakhov put the Penguins back up 3-1 at 19:31 on a power play with a wrist shot from above the left circle that bounced off the back bar which was confirmed after a video review.
Laferriere got the Kings to within 3-2 with a power-play goal at 3:07 of the second period. His intended pass from the right circle deflected off the left skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Kaedan Korczack and went in through Murashov's pads.
Los Angeles forward Artemi Panarin appeared to tie the game 3-3 at 15:36, but the Penguins challenged the play for offside, and the call was overturned after a video review.
Crosby made it 4-2 at 17:13 after Malkin's one-timer from the right circle caught a piece of him before going into the net off a setup from Erik Karlsson.
With the goal, Crosby passed Marcel Dionne (1,771) for sole possession of sixth place on the NHL’s all-time points list.
Crosby was awarded a goal at 18:44 for the 5-2 final after he was impeded by Kings defenseman Erik Gustafsson on a breakaway towards the empty net.
