Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists in his return from injury and Evgeni Malkin added two goals and an assist Tuesday as the Penguins trounced the visiting Minnesota Wild 7-3.
Crosby, who had sports hernia surgery, missed 28 games. Jared McCann, Bryan Rust and Dominik Simon each added a goal and an assist, and Alex Galchenyuk also scored for Pittsburgh, which won its fourth straight.
Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry made 26 saves.
Zach Parise scored twice and Marcus Foligno once for the Wild, who lost their fourth straight. Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves.
Things didn't go Minnesota's way from the start. The game was delayed a few minutes because defenseman Greg Pateryn dressed for the game but was listed as a scratch. He was thus ineligible to play and made to the leave the bench, leaving the Wild with just five defensemen. Ryan Donato, whom the team intended to scratch but instead listed as playing, then suited up as a 13th forward.
Malkin, who had his 14th multiple-point game, scored a power-play goal at 7:57 of the first. Malkin caught Dubnyk out of position after a give-and-go with Rust.
Pittsburgh made it 2-0 at 17:57 of the first. McCann, scoring for the third straight game, tipped in a back-door feed from Simon.
Rust hit a career high with his 19th goal, giving the Penguins a 3-0 lead at 14:04 of the second off a blind backward pass from Malkin.
Malkin made it 4-0 with a power-play goal 1:01 later when his shot went in off a Wild defenseman. Kris Letang became the first Penguins defenseman to reach 400 assists.
Parise cut it to 4-1 at 17:17 of the second. Off the rush, he beat Jarry between the pads from the left circle.
At 2:15 of the third, Foligno picked up his fifth goal in five games to make it 4-2. He was alone coming down the slot with Pittsburgh changing and slid the puck around Jarry's left skate.
Crosby's backhander went in off a defenseman at 7:41, making it 5-2, and Simon pushed the lead to 6-2 when he scored off a feed from Crosby at 8:20.
Galchenyuk's blast upped it to 7-2 at 16:57.
Parise scored with 10.5 seconds left.
--Field Level Media
