Crosby leads Pens

He paced Pittsburgh to a
4-1 victory over Dallas.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins took full advantage of their time off.

After a season-high five days off between games, Pittsburgh scored twice in the first 3:38 of the game and cruised to a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.

Crosby was flying around the ice and had two goals, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 23 shots for the Penguins, who have won three in a row.

“I felt pretty good,” Crosby said. “I thought we got some good practices in and I tried to take advantage of it. You don’t get a chance to work on things throughout the year with morning skates and short practices all the time, so you try to make the most of it when you do have the time. I felt pretty sharp.”

Tyler Kennedy and Evgeni Malkin also scored, and Colby Armstrong had two assists for Pittsburgh. The Penguins have scored 14 goals in their past three games and have at least a point in five of their past six after a 1-6 stretch.

The Penguins’ previous game was a 5-0 win over Atlanta last Saturday. Other than four days off during the All-Star break in January, Pittsburgh doesn’t have more than a three-day layoff at any other point this season.

Mike Ribeiro scored for Dallas, playing its fifth game in eight days. Dallas, which has lost two in row after winning six straight, played three times during the Penguins’ idle stretch.

Still, Dallas coach Dave Tippett rejected the notion that his team was tired.

“The lack of energy should be at the end of the game,” he said. “We always talk about when you’re chasing a game from behind, it takes energy.”

While the Stars appeared worn out, the Penguins certainly didn’t look like they had any rust. Crosby, who has a point in each of all but two games this season, scored 24 seconds into the contest when he gathered the puck along the right-wing boards and beat goalie Mike Smith between the legs.

Kennedy scored three minutes later on a similar play. He picked up the puck along the left-wing boards and beat Smith with a wrist shot to the stick side.

Crosby’s second goal of the game came midway through the second when he picked up a rebound of Sydor’s shot just to the left of Smith and roofed a wrist shot underneath the crossbar to make it 3-1.