Penguins grab early 3-goal lead, cruise past Oilers

Anthony Mantha scored two goals 21 seconds apart early in the first period and the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins cruised to a 6-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Egor Chinakhov also scored, Justin Brazeau and Jack St. Ivany each had two assists and Arturs Silovs made 30 saves for the Penguins, who have won three in a row and four of five.

Jake Walman scored short-handed, Matt Savoie also scored and Tristan Jarry made 16 saves after surrendering three goals in the first three minutes against the Penguins, who traded him to Edmonton on Dec. 12.

Brazeau brought the puck down the right side on a rush and fed Mantha as he crashed the far post and he redirected the puck into the net for a 1-0 lead at 2:20.

Brazeau then fed the puck ahead to Mantha for a breakaway and a 2-0 lead at 2:41.

Crosby then muscled his way between the hash marks and redirected a pass from Ryan Shea into the net 14 seconds later to make it 3-0, Pittsburgh's third goal in 35 seconds.

Connor McDavid was in the penalty box for slashing Erik Karlsson when the Oilers sprung loose on a short-handed rush and Walman finished it off from the slot to cut the deficit to 3-1 at 5:19 of the second.

Rakell scored with a wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle during a delayed penalty to extend the lead to 4-1 at 12:29.

Malkin then scored on a breakaway to make it 5-1 at 14:27.

Chinakhov scored from the left circle off another odd-man rush for a 6-1 lead at 2:53 of the third.

Savoie scored for the second straight game with a snap shot from the right circle to cut it to 6-2 at 13:57.

Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl returned after missing three games due to an illness in his family.

Karlsson returned after missing five games with a lower-body injury, but fellow defenseman Kris Letang missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.

--Field Level Media