93.7 The Fan (PITTSBURGH) - Sidney Crosby becomes the second active player to record 30 goals in 12 plus seasons.
Crosby scored to open the game just 15 seconds into the first period.
"It looked to me that he was trying to will it for us," said Mike Sullivan. "I thought he was very locked in from the very first shift."
He scored his 30th in the third period to extend the Penguins lead to 3-1. Marcus Pettersson took a slap shot from point that bounced off the end boards to Rickard Rakell, who found Crosby back door for the tap in.
"I'm just happy to get the win," said Crosby. "Obviously we could build off this. We need the points, however we can get them."
His first goal was also assisted by Pettersson and Rakell.
"I mean we've been relying on him all year," said Petterson. "He never fails and we're going to keep doing that. When people get hurt like Jake now, we're going to need people to step up and I think a lot of people stepped up tonight. We can feed off Sid's energy, his energy was battling all night. It doesn't matter if he scores two or zero, tonight he was battling his you know what off."
The Penguins other two goals came from Reilly Smith and Bryan Rust on an empty netter. Alex Nedeljkovic got the start and made 27 saves on 28 shots in the 4-1 win.
"I thought Ned was solid," said Sullivan. "He made some timely saves when we needed it. It's an important part of winning."
The Pens take the ice again Sunday night when they host the LA Kings at 6 p.m.