Jake Guentzel and Mikael Granlund each had a goal and an assist Saturday as the Pittsburgh Penguins downed the visiting Philadelphia Flyers 5-1.
Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan became the 40th NHL coach to reach 400 career wins (400-234-15-87).
Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Jason Zucker also scored, and Marcus Pettersson had two assists for the Penguins, who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games.
Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith made 31 saves.
Kieffer Bellows scored for the Flyers, who have lost three straight. Goaltender Carter Hart made 27 saves.
The Penguins shuffled all four forward lines after it was announced that newly acquired center Nick Bonino would be out week-to-week after he underwent a procedure for a lacerated kidney.
Rakell, who moved from the top line to the third line in that shuffle, opened the scoring at 5:52 of the first. Near the right side of the crease, he deflected in a shot by Pettersson from the top of the slot.
Bellows tied it 1-1 at 10:04 on a shot that left DeSmith seemingly wanting a do-over. Off the rush, Bellows let loose a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. Although defenseman Brian Dumoulin was guarding Bellows, it appeared that DeSmith had a clear look at the shot, but it eluded him blocker side.
On a power play at 6:49 of the second, Crosby put Pittsburgh back on top. With penalty killer Owen Tippett down and struggling after blocking a shot, Crosby blasted a one-timer from the right dot off a feed from Guentzel to make it 2-1.
Tippett went to the locker room but returned shortly thereafter.
That gave Crosby 53 goals and 122 points in a season’s worth of games — 82 — in his career against the rival Flyers.
Zucker notched his eighth goal in seven games when his deflection of a Pettersson shot trickled under Hart at 14:24 of the third to make it 3-1.
Guentzel added an empty-netter with 1:38 left, and Granlund topped it off with 55.8 seconds left.
–Field Level Media
