Sid Crosby scores twice in Penguins’ 6-3 victory

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Sidney Crosby’s big game helped the Pittsburgh Penguins overcome a two-goal deficit for the second straight game.

Crosby had two goals and an assist and the Penguins scored the final five goals in a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday for their third consecutive win since the Olympic break ended.

Crosby scored the Penguins’ fourth and fifth goals — with 3:13 to play in the second and 1:35 into the third — to take the NHL lead with 44 on the season. He had been tied with the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin, who was playing later against the New York Rangers.

Alexei Ponikarovsky scored in his Penguins debut, and Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also had goals.

Mike Ribeiro and Brandon Segal each had a goal and an assist, and Loui Eriksson scored his 25th goal for Dallas, which has lost three straight since the NHL resumed play.

Scoring his first goal since his overtime winner for Canada against the U.S. in the gold-medal game last Sunday, Crosby gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead by banking a shot off Stars defenseman Trevor Daley from behind the goal line and with the net to his left.

Crosby made it 5-3 with a short-handed goal 1:35 into the third, 38 seconds after the Penguins killed the remainder of what Stars veteran Mike Modano called an “atrocious” 5-on-3 Dallas power play. It was Crosby’s second career short-handed goal.

“That power play didn’t generate much, and they came back and scored at the end of it,” Ribeiro said. “That was the game.”

Crosby’s goals were the third and fourth of five successive by the Penguins that followed three straight Stars goals that had given Dallas a 3-1 lead.

The Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin had a 15-game point streak snapped.