Pens thump Wild

In Pittsburgh, the Penguins celebrated the return of Sidney Crosby by breaking out to a 4-0 lead over the visiting Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night en route to a 7-3 thrashing.

Crosby had a goal and four points on the night.

“It was good,” Crosby said. “It helps when you get some power plays early. Still a couple shifts that I feel like were a little tough, but as far as rhythm, it helps to get on the power play early and get your feet under you a bit. Team played well.”

Tristan Jarry made 26 saves in the win.

Zach Parise had two goals for the Wild.

“We’ve got to just come to work tomorrow, forget this and let’s get back at it,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “This is what we did early on in the year, is we said ‘Woe is me’ on our mistakes and then it goes for a big slide. We have to end the slide now, no matter who we’re playing.”

Marcus Foligno also scored for the Wild.

“Our start was fine,” Foligno said. “We didn’t really give them too many chances. They capitalized on the chances we gave them, capitalized on our mistakes. Those were our mental, kind of, blips. That’s something that we have to learn to play a full 60 (minutes), but just start games and be mentally ready. It just seemed like we were shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Evgeni Malkin struck twice for the Pens.

“[Crosby] works so hard. His fitness level is so good,’ Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “t’s pretty difficult to simulate the intensity of NHL game situations, and I’m sure that was an adjustment for him, but it sure didn’t appear to be an adjustment for him [to] the rest of us, I think.”

Jared McCann, Bryan Rust, Dominik Simon, and Alex Galchenyuk  also scored for the Pens.

[WATCH: All Wild vs. Penguins highlights]

Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves in the loss.

“Their puck support all over the ice was crazy,” Parise said. “It’s like they always had three guys on the puck offensively and defensively. They make small little short passes up the ice together. They come at you 100 mph. That made it really tough.”