MONTREAL (AP) — Sidney Crosby climbed up the NHL career scoring list and Jansen Harkins scored the deciding goal in the 12th round of the shootout to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.
Crosby had two goals and an assist to move past Paul Coffey and into a tie with former teammate Mark Recchi for 13th place on the NHL points list with 1,533. Jake Guentzel also scored in regulation for the Penguins, who won their second straight after a four-game skid.
Erik Karlsson had two assists and Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 39 saves.
David Savard, Jayden Struble and Sean Monahan scored for Montreal, which has lost eight of its last nine at home. Sam Montembeault had 27 saves.
Montreal’s Nick Suzuki and Cole Caulfield and Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang and Crosby all scored on the first four attempts of the shootout. The next eight skaters couldn’t convert until Sean Monahan scored for the Canadiens and Lars Eller for the Penguins in the seventh round. Another nine skaters went before Harkins, who got only 4:24 of ice time during the game, ended it.
Montreal failed to score after spending almost an entire 4-on-3 overtime power play in Pittsburgh’s zone following Evgeni Malkin’s tripping penalty.
Montreal built leads of 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period, before Pittsburgh scored twice in the second to tie the score.
With the Penguins on a power play, Guetzel got a pass from Crosby at the high slot and fired a shot past Montembault make it 3-2 at 5:36 of the middle period. It was Guentzel’s 13th goal of the season.
Crosby got his second of the night to tie it nearly 5 1/2 minutes later with Pittsburgh’s second power-play tally of the night. Crosby got a pass in the high slot from Karlsson scored past Montembault for his 17th with just under 9 minutes left in the second. That pulled him into a tie with Recchi.
Savard, playing in just his seventh game of the season, got the Canadiens on the scoreboard at 6:24 of the first period. He picked up Karlsson’s errant outlet pass to Drew O’Connor inside the blue line, skated into the high slot and beat Nedeljkovic for his first.
Struble made it 2-0 with 7:39 left in the opening period. Michael Pezzetta sent a pass from behind the goal line to the front of the net, and Struble put it past Nedelkjovic from the right side for his second.
Crosby got the Penguins on the scoreboard 1:27 later as he backhanded a loose puck during a scramble on the left side. It tied him with Coffey (1,531) for 14th place.
The Canadiens retook a two-goal lead with a power-play goal with 4:40 left in the first. Mike Matheson’s wrist shot from the post trickled through Nedeljkovic and landed on the goal line, where Monahan was on hand to tap it in.
UP NEXT
Penguins: At Toronto on Saturday night to finish a two-game trip.
Canadiens: Host the New York Islanders on Saturday night to finish a three-game homestand.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
