Evgeni Malkin scored 1:03 into overtime and Sidney Crosby scored twice to lead the Penguins to a 4-3 win against the Blues at Consol Energy Center. Pittsburgh finished a four-game homestand 3-1-0. The Penguins will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. St. Louis has lost five of its past eight games since beginning the season 11-3-1.
Crosby, who tied his season-high with nine shots, gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead by scoring two goals for the first time in 47 regular-season games. The goal was Crosby's first in 11 games against the Blues. He has at least one point in each of his past three games. Wednesday marked the first time Crosby scored at least two goals in a regular-season game since Feb. 12. The Blues played their ninth game in 16 days and managed to come back from a third-period deficit for the second time in as many games. St. Louis scored two third-period goals on its way to a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
Goals* After Ian Cole went to the penalty box for holding the stick, Paul Stastny took seven seconds to give the Blues a 1-0 lead 9:15 into the first period. Alexander Steen sent a slap pass to Stastny left of the crease, where he redirected a shot past Fleury.
* Crosby erased a 1-0 deficit with 3:41 remaining in the first. After Pascal Dupuis forced Carl Gunnarsson to turn the puck over in his own zone, it trickled to Crosby between the faceoff circles, where he beat Allen with a slap shot.
* Crosby scored again with Dmitrij Jaskin in the penalty box for hooking. Malkin fed Crosby in the slot, where he redirected a feed through traffic from Penguins Patric Hornqvist past Allen to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead 9:57 into the second period.
* Robby Fabbri scored a third-period goal for the second consecutive game. Fabbri's wrist shot from the top of the far circle tied the game 2-2 at 1:12.
* A wrist shot from Ben Lovejoy at the end of a long shift gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead 6:49 into the third period.
* Alex Pietrangelo responded with 5:41 remaining by putting a wrist shot past Marc-Andre Fleury from the right faceoff circle.* Phil Kessel's pass to Malkin eluded two Blues after charging into the St. Louis zone. Malkin went in on goalie Jake Allen alone, deked to the left before going back to the right for his team-leading eighth goal, and fifth game-winner.
Pens Quotes
Mike Johnston: "That's a tough team, St. Louis. When you're playing that type of team, they make you play 60 minutes. You can't have a letdown for any time and I thought we made some mistakes, but I didn't think we had a letdown."Sidney Crosby: "They're a big team. They're physical. They came at us pretty hard, but we handled it really well. I think I was just able to get those opportunities. When you get open ice, you have more time to read the play and to see what's open, and [Hornqvist] is always there. He's always near the net, so it's never a bad play to throw it there, and a lot of times tonight when I picked my head up, he was sitting there. So it's never a bad play to put it in an area when he's fighting for position there."
Blues Quotes
Ken Hitchcock: "We have too much slowness in our game. Too much slowness. From where we were before, we were in attack mode, and we're on our heels now. We're way too much on the heels now. We're constantly trying to slow the play down instead of trying to get the pace back up again. That's something we want to improve."Alex Pietrangelo: "Four (points) would be better. It's not easy playing comeback hockey, though. We have to find a way to get up on teams early and bury them. Good character shown coming back here, but it'd be nice to be up once in a while. But then again, it's tough on the road to carry that momentum for a full game."
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