Angelina Jolie / Grey's Anatomy / NHL Hockey / IndyCar
PITTSBURGH -- When the Pittsburgh Penguins looked to their captain, Sidney Crosby answered.
Pittsburgh scored three straight third-period goals, with Crosby factoring on each, to defeat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 at Consol Energy Center on Saturday.
Daniel Winnik, Steve Downie and Crosby scored in a span of 4:08 for the Penguins after forward Tye McGinn opened the scoring for the Coyotes early in the third. Crosby's goal turned out to be the game-winner as forward Tobias Rieder scored late for Arizona.
"I thought we just kept our head down and played the same way [in the third period]," Crosby said. "Even when they scored the first one, obviously you don't want to see that especially after the chances you're getting, but I didn't feel like we changed our game. We just kept playing the same way, and when you're getting chances like that I think you trust and believe that one's going to find the back of the net."
Thomas Greiss made 22 saves for the Penguins (41-23-11). Mike Smith made 43 saves for the Coyotes (23-45-8).
Each goalie was working on a shutout headed into the third. After the puck was cycled to Coyotes defenseman Klas Dahlbeck at the point, he sent a slap shot through traffic that was deflected by McGinn and through a screen by former Penguins forward Joe Vitale and past Greiss at 4:52.
Pittsburgh's rally began 2:24 later with Winnik's first goal as a Penguin. Crosby won a faceoff cleanly to defenseman Paul Martin, whose slap shot hit off Smith's pads before bouncing out directly in front of the crease. Winnik scored on the rebound with a snap shot past Smith's blocker to tie the game 1-1.
Downie received a pass from Crosby and put a slap shot behind Smith 9:19 into the third. Crosby scored with 8:36 remaining to extend the Penguins' lead to two goals.
Crosby's goal was reviewed and upheld. He leads the NHL with 78 points, two ahead of Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek.
Rieder scored with 1:51 remaining and Smith pulled for an extra skater.
Pittsburgh moved into a tie with the New York Islanders for second in the Metropolitan Division and is six points ahead of the Boston Bruins, who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Penguins had lost six of their past seven games entering Saturday.
Arizona could not win its third straight since an eight-game losing streak from March 7-22.
"I thought we started the game pretty well and the second period, they took it to us pretty good," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "[Smith] hung around and kept us in the game and in the third period we got the lead, and unfortunately we took some penalties and they capitalized on it."
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang left the game after sustaining an apparent upper-body injury with 4:45 remaining in the second period.
Coyotes forward Shane Doan shoved Letang to the ice after the defenseman chipped the puck into the neutral zone. Letang fell onto his back, causing the back of his head to hit into the end boards.
Letang remained seated on the ice with his back against the end boards for several minutes while being treated. Downie and defenseman Rob Scuderi helped him to the runway.
Penguins coach Mike Johnston said Letang was taken to the hospital and Pittsburgh will receive an evaluation on his health Sunday morning.
"When it happened, I could tell that when he went into the boards, it was awkward," Doan said. "He's so good. We talk about it. We have to make sure you don't let him jump by you. I just went to make sure I got a piece of him so he couldn't jump by me and obviously, he went into the boards awkward. We have to finish our checks on him.
"You never ever want to see anybody like that, especially somebody of his caliber and obviously everything's he's went through the past couple of years, you never want to see that. So you feel awful as a player."
In what has been considered a rebound season, Letang is third on Pittsburgh with 54 points in 68 games, trailing Crosby and forward Evgeni Malkin. Letang played 37 games last season because of various injuries, including a stroke in January 2014.
Pittsburgh had the better scoring chances in a scoreless first period. The best opportunity came midway through the first, when Crosby fed a pass from behind the Arizona net to forward Patric Hornqvist, who held onto the puck instead of one-timing a shot from in front of the crease.
The hesitation allowed Smith to adjust and make a pad save with 8:54 remaining in the period.
The Penguins went down a man after forward Blake Comeau received a five-minute major and game misconduct for boarding Coyotes forward Andrew Campbell with 6:47 left in the first. Campbell stayed down on the ice for about a minute before heading to the Arizona locker room. He returned in the second period. Pittsburgh allowed five shots during a successful kill.
Malkin missed six games after sustaining the injury during his first shift in the Penguins' 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on March 14. Hornqvist, who last played against the Detroit Red Wings on March 15, also returned, but forward David Perron was unavailable because of an undisclosed illness.
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