Sidney Crosby scores twice as Pittsburgh holds off Washington and Alex Ovechkin in 5-3 victory
Sidney Crosby scored twice, and Bryan Rust delivered the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Washington Capitals 5-3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored twice and Bryan Rust delivered the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Thursday night.
The 39-year-old Crosby's two first-period power-play goals boosted his season total to an NHL-best 11. Rust's fifth of the season helped the Penguins avoid a second straight collapse. Anthony Mantha picked up his seventh of the year for Pittsburgh. Connor Dewar added an empty-net goal in the final minutes.
Rookie Ben Kindel collected the first two assists of his young career for the Penguins. Arturs Silovs made 28 saves as Pittsburgh stopped a two-game skid.
Ovechkin fueled a second-period rally by collecting a pair of assists the night after becoming the first player to reach the 900-goal plateau.
Ryan Strome, Tom Wilson and Rasmus Sandin scored for the Capitals, but the 99th all-time meeting between longtime rivals Crosby and Ovechkin ended with the surprising Penguins maintaining their composure after blowing a three-goal lead.
Pittsburgh has been an early-season surprise under first-year coach Dan Muse, though the Penguins' hot start hit a bump on Monday when two dominant periods in Toronto morphed into a third-period meltdown in which the Maple Leafs ripped off four straight goals to pull off a stunner.
Not this time. Pittsburgh's second-ranked power play scored three times, including a pair by Crosby in the first.
Pittsburgh appeared to be in firm control when Mantha pushed Pittsburgh's lead to 3-0 just over 2 minutes into the second.
Recommended for you
Washington responded by scoring three times, the last a nifty shot from his knees by Tom Wilson that tied the game 5 seconds before the horn sounded to end the period.
The Penguins steadied themselves, and Rust put them ahead to stay with a pretty redirect off a cross-ice feed from Evgeni Malkin.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.