Rickard Rakell scored the shootout winner as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Sunday night.
Rakell beat Jakub Dobes with a backhand in the third round to earn the victory as the Penguins won in a shootout for the first time this season (1-5).
Rakell and Sidney Crosby each had a goal and an assist in regulation, and Noel Acciari also scored for Pittsburgh, which won for the first time in nine outings (1-4-4).
With his two-point performance, Crosby (1,724) passed Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux to become the Penguins’ all-time scoring record and eighth in league history.
Arturs Silovs made 23 saves in the victory.
Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov each had a goal and an assist, and Noah Dobson also found the back of the net for the Canadiens, who fell to 4-1-2 in their last seven games.
Juraj Slafkovsky had two assists and Dobes stopped 28 shots.
Dobson tied it 3-3 by tipping a loose puck past Silvos at 4:04 of the third period.
Montreal had tied it 2-2 at 3:54 of the second period when Demidov took a cross-ice pass from Slafkovsky.
Acciari fired a shot from the glove side past Dobes at 11:51, giving Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.
Kapanen opened the scoring by catching a pass from Slafkovsky past Silvos at 7:31 of the first period.
Pittsburgh responded 27 seconds later when Crosby redirected an Erik Karlsson shot past Dobes for his 20th goal of the season.
Rakell gave the Penguins their first lead of the night, scoring the rebound off Bryan Rust’s shot on a power play at 12:40 of the first. Crosby collected the second assist on Rakell’s fourth goal of the season.
On Sunday, the Canadiens recalled Sammy Blais from Laval of the American Hockey League. Blais joined the lineup on the fourth line for Jake Evans. Evans, who collided knee-to-knee with Justin Brazeau in the first period of Montreal’s 4-0 home win over Pittsburgh on Saturday night, was placed on injured reserve. Blais had an assist in 8:32 of ice time.
–Field level media
