Rickard Rakell scored the shootout winner as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the visiting Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Sunday night.
Rakell beat Jakub Dobes with a backhand deke in the third round for the win as the Penguins won for the first time in a shootout this season (1-5).
Rakell and Sidney Crosby each had a goal and an assist in regulation, and Noel Acciari also tallied 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 for the Penguins’ all-time scoring record and eighth in league history.
Arturs Silovs made 23 saves in the win.
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 dropped to 4-1-2 in their last seven.
Juraj Slafkovsky had a pair of helpers, and Dobes stopped 28 shots.
Dobson tied it 3-3 by backhanding a loose puck past Silvos at 4:04 of the third period.
Montreal had tied it 2-2 at 3:54 of the middle frame as Demidov one-timed a cross-ice feed from Slafkovsky.
Acciari snapped a shot glove-side past Dobes at 11:51, giving Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.
Kapanen opened the scoring, one-timing a Slafkovsky pass past Silvos at 7:31 of the first period.
Pittsburgh responded 27 seconds later as 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, putting home the rebound off Bryan Rust’s shot on a power play at 12:40 of the first. Crosby picked up the secondary assist on Rakell’s fourth of the season.
On Sunday, the Canadiens recalled Sammy Blais from Laval of the American Hockey League. Blais drew into the lineup on the fourth line for Jake Evans. Evans, who collided knee-on-knee with Justin Brazeau during 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
