Penguins torch Wild in Sidney Crosby's return

“He’s a playmaker,” Malkin said of Crosby’s prowess on the power play. “He controls the puck. I (know) Sid a long time. We try to look at each other, we try to move pucks quicker. You see it worked right away. We practiced for a couple of days. Tonight, we scored two goals, huge goals. It’s so much easier because Sid moves pucks so well. He holds pucks so well. Best player.”

The Penguins doubled their lead exactly 10 minutes later when McCann converted a pass by Simon into his 14th goal.

It became a 3-0 score at 14:04 of the second period when forward Bryan Rust established a career high with his 19th goal from the slot off a brilliant drop pass from Malkin.

The Penguins poured it on with another power-play goal only 61 seconds later when Malkin was credited with a goal after an apparent pass attempt to forward Patric Hornqvist veered into the net past Dubnyk’s blocker on the near side. Crosby had another secondary assist on that score.

Minnesota, which played with only five defensemen because a lineup sheet error by coach Bruce Boudreau led to Greg Pateryn being an inadvertent scratch, got on the scoreboard at 17:17 of the second when forward Zach Parise scored. A breakaway goal by forward Marcus Foligno 2:15 into the third period made it a 4-2 contest.

Any notion of a comeback was extinguished at 7:41 of the third, when Crosby was credited with his sixth goal after a pass attempt from the left circle to Simon inadvertently was banked into the cage by Wild defenseman Matt Dumba’s stick. It was Crosby’s sixth goal of the season and first since Oct. 29.

Crosby set up another goal, at 8:20 of the third, with a brilliant individual effort. Fending off Minnesota forward Ryan Donato, who was in the lineup in place of Pateryn, behind the Wild cage, Crosby flicked a backhanded “pass” off the back of the net to himself, spun towards the left of the crease and lasered a pass through the crease to Simon, who tapped in a forehand shot past Dubnyk’s left leg for his fifth goal.

“It’s great to watch, definitely,” Simon said. “Even more when you’re on the ice with him, and he found (me) after that. It was a cool play from him.”

A one-timer from the right circle by Penguins forward Alex Galchenyuk, his fifth of the season, at 16:57 of the third made it 7-2.

Parise scored again at 19:49 of the third to cap the scoring.

After seeing Crosby dice up an admittedly limited Wild team, it’s fair to wonder what could cap the Penguins’ scoring moving forward.

“Fun to compete,” Crosby said. “With the way we work, just being out there and being on the bench and seeing it shift after shift. … hat’s tough for teams to play against.”

“We’re stronger,” Malkin said. “We’re a better team. … So much better.”