Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his goal against the Detroit Red Wings in the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 8, 2023, in Detroit.Paul Sancya/The Associated Press
Captain Sidney Crosby collected two goals and an assist to boost his NHL career point total to 1,500, lifting the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-1 road win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday afternoon.
The Penguins (40-30-10, 90 points) stayed in the hunt for one of the final two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh entered the day one point behind Florida and the New York Islanders in the standings.
Alex Nylander, Danton Heinen and Evgeni Malkin each scored a goal and Tristan Jarry made 19 saves for the Penguins.
Pius Suter scored a goal and Ville Husso turned aside 23 shots for Detroit (35-34-10, 80 points).
Nylander opened the scoring at 9:25 of the first period.
Taking a pass from Mikael Granlund, Nylander got loose in between the faceoff circles in front of the Detroit net and fired a shot past Husso.
The score remained that way until Crosby scored a backbreaking goal in the final seconds of the first period.
After killing off a Detroit penalty, Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel forced a turnover by getting the puck off of the stick of Detroit defenseman Jake Walman in front of Husso.
Crosby then picked up the loose puck and fired a backhand that beat Husso above his glove with 2.5 seconds remaining in the first period.
The Penguins then made it 3-0 with 9:44 left in the second period when Heinen batted home a loose puck out of the air in the front of the Detroit net.
Detroit responded immediately, cutting its deficit to 3-1 just 42 seconds later after Suter took a cross-crease pass from Andrew Copp in front of the Pittsburgh goal and shot it into an open net.
Crosby then struck again on a Pittsburgh power play, giving the Penguins a 4-1 lead at 3:01 of the third period when he fired a shot from the left faceoff circle that went just under the crossbar.
Pittsburgh capped the scoring with seven minutes left after Malkin put in a loose puck sitting in the crease of the Detroit goal.