Crosby scores, Letang reaches 600 career assists as Penguins breeze past Canucks 5-1

Audio By Carbonatix

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored his fourth goal and Kris Letang became the 20th defenseman in NHL history to reach 600 career assists as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Crosby beat Kevin Lankinen from the slot in the later stages of the second period to extend his goal streak to three straight games. It also gave Pittsburgh's longtime captain 1,896 career points combined between the regular season and the postseason, moving Crosby past Penguins icon and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux and alone into seventh place in NHL history.

Letang set up Tommy Novak's first goal with the Penguins 14:21 into the second period to reach 599 assists. Letang picked up No. 600 in the third period when he was credited with the secondary assist on Justin Brazeau's fifth goal of the season. The 38-year-old Letang is just the 10th defenseman in league history to reach 600 assists with a single team.

Brazeau added two assists for the Penguins. Anthony Mantha and Connor Dewar also scored as Pittsburgh won its third straight.

Arturs Silovs, in a competition with two-time All-Star Tristan Jarry to become Pittsburgh's No. 1 goaltender, allowed Vancouver's Conor Garland to beat him on the first shot of the game but settled down from there and finished with 23 saves.

Lankinen stopped just 20 of the 25 shots he faced as Vancouver saw its three-game winning streak end.

Pittsburgh broke a tie game in the second period when Novak, Crosby and Mantha each scored in a span of just over three minutes to put the Penguins comfortably ahead as Pittsburgh improved to 5-2-0 under first-year coach Dan Muse.

Canucks: finish up a five-game road trip in Nashville on Thursday.

Penguins: visit two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida on Thursday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL