Penguins’ Bryan Rust scores in overtime to end Kings’ winning streak
After having a goal waved off in overtime, Bryan Rust quickly made sure it didn’t happen twice.
His wraparound goal with 1:15 remaining in overtime gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 victory over the Kings on Thursday night, giving them a sweep of their California road trip for the first time since 1996-97.
Rust appeared to put in his own rebound 19 seconds earlier, but the goal was waved off when he was ruled offside.
“The first one, when I first got it, I thought it was offside. They didn’t blow the whistle and I just kept playing in the puck. I celebrated like it was a goal, but I wasn’t too surprised when it didn’t count,” said Rust, who has five overtime regular-season goals in his 10-year career. “I was able to get out there right away again and make the most of it.”
The Kings became just the eighth team in league history to win their first seven road games to start a season.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist as he became the 11th player in NHL history with 450 career multi-point games. He also extended his point streak to seven games.
Lars Eller and Jake Guentzel also had goals for the Penguins. Magnus Hellberg stopped 34 shots.
“I know it was an ugly win. I don’t think we were at our best. We had moments when I thought we would get into momentum swings on both sides, but I just thought we kept competing,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s obviously a great road trip for us. I think it’s something that we can build on.”
The Kings had a four-game winning streak snapped. Adrian Kempe extended his points streak to eight games with a second-period goal and Anze Kopitar moved into second on the Kings’ career points list with an assist on Carl Grundstrom’s first-period score.
Kevin Fiala also scored and Pheonix Copley made 16 saves.
Crosby assisted on Guentzel’s goal 37 seconds into the third period. Crosby was near the blue line in the offensive zone when he saw Guentzel quickly skating in to his left. Crosby fed a perfect cross-ice pass to Guentzel, who redirected it past Copley to make it 3-2.
Fiala evened it at 6:40 when he put in a rebound after a mad scramble in front of the net.
Crosby — who has four goals and nine points during his points streak — opened the scoring with a wraparound goal 7:11 into the first period. It was his 557th career goal, which ties him with Mike Modano (Minnesota/Dallas) and Luc Robitaille (Kings) for the ninth most in NHL history by a player with one franchise.
Kopitar picked up his 1,155th point during the first period when Grundstrom tied it.
Matt Roy fired the puck down the ice as the Kings were killing a penalty. Kopitar chased the puck into the corner and fed it to Grundstrom, who chipped it in as he was skating to the front of the net.
Cam Talbot made 24 saves in his first shutout of the season as the Kings defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0 to remain unbeaten on the road.
The assist, the 755th of Kopitar’s career, also put him two away from tying Marcel Dionne’s franchise record 757.
“It seems to be happening every night. The sun comes up and it goes down, and Kopi sets a record,” coach Todd McLellan said. “It should be recognized, acknowledging the type of career he’s had. But it’s happening over and over again, which is great for him.”
Kempe put the Kings up 2-1 at 9:58 of the second with a slap shot from the back of the left faceoff circle. Eller then tied it when he kept control of the puck and released a snap shot from the slot at 18:03.
Up next for the Kings: Host Philadelphia on Saturday.
