Sidney Crosby scored two goals as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Saturday night.
Blake Lizotte added another goal for the Penguins. Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves, earning his third career win against the Canadiens. This marks the second time this season that Pittsburgh has won back-to-back games.
The Penguins have also won five consecutive games against the Canadiens.
For Montreal, Christian Dvorak scored, and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves, but the Canadiens have now lost three games in a row.
Lizotte sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with 45 seconds left in the third period, marking his first goal of the season.
Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky left the game with just over three minutes remaining in the third period after a hit from Penguins forward Noel Acciari. Slafkovsky did not return.
Dvorak scored his first goal of the season at 5:32 of the third period by putting in his own rebound, reducing Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-1.
Pittsburgh jumped ahead 2-0 with 1:20 left in the second period when Crosby fired a shot past Montembeault on the glove side for his fifth goal of the season and his 25th career goal against the Canadiens.
Crosby also scored two goals in a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. In the first period, both teams had five shots on goal, but Pittsburgh led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes.
Crosby started the scoring at 15:57 of the first period, receiving a pass from Rickard Rakell and beating Montembeault high on the blocker side for his fourth goal of the season.
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang played in his 1,100th career game on Saturday. He ranks third all-time in games played for Pittsburgh, behind Crosby (1,285 games) and Evgeni Malkin (1,158).
