Sidney Crosby's goal gives Pens win after Wild rally

Field Level Media|published: Mon 18th December, 22:03 2023

Dec 18, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang (58) handles the puck against pressure from Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno (17) during the first period at PPG Paints Arena. credits: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Sidney Crosby's tiebreaking power-play goal in the third Monday gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win over the visiting Minnesota Wild.

At 3-3 after the Penguins blew a three-goal lead, Crosby scored at 6:20 of the third. Jake Guentzel threw the puck into the crease, then it bounced off a couple of Wild skates before Crosby shoveled it under goaltender Filip Gustavsson's pads for his team-leading 18th goal of the season.

Crosby, Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin each and a goal and an assist, Reilly Smith also scored and Valtteri Puustinen and Marcus Pettersson each had two assists for the Penguins, who have won three of four.

Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves.

Ryan Hartman, Jake Middleton and Vinni Lettieri scored for the Wild, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

Gustavsson made 26 saves.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring at 7:39 of the first. Puustinen swiped the puck from Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski behind the net and fed Smith out front. Smith lofted the puck over Gustavsson's glove for his eighth goal of the season.

Guentzel upped it to 2-0 on a power play 36 seconds into the second when he tipped in a blast from Erik Karlsson for his 14th goal of the season.

Crosby got the secondary assist, giving him 1,534 career points and sole possession of 13th place on the NHL's all-time scoring list.

Off a two-on-one, Puustinen and Malkin got a step on Goligoski. Puustinen fed Malkin, who scored on nearly an open net to make it 3-0 at 3:34 of the second. For Malkin, it was his 11th goal this season.

Minnesota began its comeback when it cut it to 3-1 at 15:06 of the second. Hartman got a long rebound in the lower right circle and plunked the puck behind Nedeljkovic for his eighth goal of the season.

Middleton pulled the Wild to within 3-2 at 17:30 of the second with his fifth goal of the season. Kirill Kaprizov came out of a scrum in the right corner with the puck and got it to Matt Boldy. The puck rolled away from Boldy as he tried to go backhand to forehand, and Middleton jumped on it and scored inside the left post.

The Wild tied it at 5:33 of the third when Lettieri scored his third goal of the season, tipping in a shot by Jon Merrill.

—Field Level Media

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