Malkin has five points, Penguins rally to defeat Canucks

PITTSBURGH -- Evgeni Malkin had a five-point game for the first time since 2012, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from down three goals in the third period for an 8-6 win against the Vancouver Canucks at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

Kris Letang scored the game-winning goal with 3:06 remaining in the third.
Malkin had two goals and three assists, Jake Guentzel had two goals and two assists, and Bryan Rust had a goal and three assists for the Penguins (14-7-4), who extended their point streak to six games (4-0-2). It was the eighth time Malkin had five points and first since March 20, 2012, when he had two goals and three assists in an 8-4 win against the Winnipeg Jets.
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"I'm just feeling it," Malkin said. "Coach [Mike Sullivan] gave me time. I play all three zones. Face-off. I play power play. Confidence is like huge right now."
Matt Murray made 10 saves on 14 shots for Pittsburgh before being pulled with 59 seconds left in the second period. Tristan Jarry made six saves in relief.

J.T. Miller and Adam Gaudette each scored twice for the Canucks (12-10-4), who have lost two in a row after winning their previous two games. Thatcher Demko made 32 saves, and Jake Virtanen and Elias Pettersson each had a goal and an assist.
"We should've won," Demko said. "There's not much to it. Have to find a way to make a couple stops there in the third. Had a slow start. Good to get back in the game. Have to find a way to win."
The Penguins scored five straight goals after going down 6-3 in the third period.
Dominik Kahun cut it to 6-4 at 4-on-4 at 6:16, and Malkin scored on a slap shot on the power play to make it 6-5 at 7:24. Zach Aston-Reese tied it 6-6 with a wrist shot from the slot at 10:30.
Letang put Pittsburgh ahead 7-6 on a slap shot from the top of the right face-off circle off a pass from Guentzel. Vancouver coach Travis Green challenged for offside, but the goal was upheld by video review, resulting in a delay of game penalty on the Canucks.
Malkin scored an empty-net goal to make it 8-6 with less than a second left.
The Canucks fell behind 2-0 in the first period before scoring four straight goals.
Miller cut it to 2-1 at 16:42 of the first period. He took a pass from Hughes before going backhand over Murray.
Pettersson tied it 2-2 with a wrist shot from the left circle at 7:17 of the second period.
Virtanen gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead by tucking a backhand shot under Murray's pad at 18:20 before Adam Gaudette made it 4-2 with a wrist shot at 19:01 of the second.
Guentzel cut it to 4-3 on a backhand shot at 1:01 of the third before Vancouver scored two goals 35 seconds apart.

Miller scored a power-play goal at 2:31, making it 5-3, and Gaudette extended it to 6-3 on a wrist shot at 3:06.
"We were definitely feeling good about ourselves," Gaudette said. "It's not like anybody let up. I think everybody gave it their all. It's just that sometimes you have to take a breath, breathe a bit and get back to it."
Guentzel put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 at 2:29 of the first before Rust made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 12:53 of that period.
"I think we played well tonight," Guentzel said. "I think we gave them a couple opportunities in the second, but I thought for the most part, we played a pretty good game."

They said it

"I know our team was feeling pretty good about ourselves. ... I thought we made a couple individual mistakes that we would like to have back."-- Canucks coach Travis Green
"We love our resilience that this groups shows. It's just a never-say-day attitude." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Need to know

Canucks forward Nikolay Goldobin made his season debut on the second line after being recalled from Utica of the American Hockey League on Tuesday. ... Demko made his second straight start for the Canucks after making 32 saves in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. Jacob Markstrom initially was named the starter after the morning skate. ... Pettersson has three goals in his past four games. ... Guentzel has had at least one point in each of his seven games against the Canucks for a total of 13 (eight goals, five assists). He has six goals and five assists during a six-game point streak. ... Malkin has had multiple points in six of 12 games since returning from a lower-body injury that kept him out of 11 games. He has 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) during that stretch. ... Malkin was the first Penguins player to have five points in a game since Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino on March 26, 2017.

What's next

Canucks: At the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN360, SNE, SNO, SNP, NHL.TV)
Penguins: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, FS-O, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)