In Pittsburgh, the Penguins’ Tristan Jarry made 28 saves on Tuesday night, in a 5-2 win over the visiting Montreal Canadiens.
Kasperi Kapanen and Kris Letang staked the Pens to an early 2-0 lead.
“I just think I feel better timingwise,” the Pens’ Sidney Crosby said. “There’s a lot more chances there. If I had to evaluate, I would’ve liked to bury a few more. But I think, besides that, as far as generating chances, timing and that sort of thing, it’s a lot more comfortable than it was starting out.”
Montreal’s Jonathan Drouin got one of those goals back to make it 2-1.
Crosby collected two assists for his 400th multi-point game in his career.
“I don’t think the score reflects the game,” Montreal head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “I thought we were competitive pretty much all night.”
Montreal dropped to 6-21-3.
Pittsburgh’s Mike Matheson and the Canadiens’ Jesse Ylonen exchanged goals in the middle frame to give the Pens a 3-2 lead heading to the third period.
The Pens got some breathing room when Brian Dumoulin with 28 seconds gone in the third period for a 4-2 lead.
“Sid’s the type of guy where there’s some guys, obviously, in the league where you know they’re going to make the play,” Dumoulin said. “Sid’s one of those. He can have two guys on him, three guys or could be in a tough situation, but you know he’ll find a way to get the puck through and get it to you. Obviously, have to be ready.”
Pittsburgh improved to 15-8-5.
“I can see it every night, just his game coming,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said of Crosby. “It just gets better and better. He’s all over the puck.”
Brian Boyle scored an empty-net goal for the 5-2 final, late in the third.
Jake Allen made 26 saves in the Habs loss.
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