Crosby gets hat trick, Penguins rally to end Stars' 7-game winning streak

DALLAS -- Sidney Crosby had a hat trick, and the Pittsburgh Penguins ended the Dallas Stars’ seven-game winning streak with a 5-3 victory at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Crosby also had an assist to go with his 14th NHL hat trick for his 43rd four-point game in the NHL. The Penguins captain has a 12-game point streak (18 points; 10 goals, eight assists), the longest active streak in the NHL.

“[Hat tricks] are fun. They don’t come along often, so they’re definitely fun to get,” Crosby said. “It’s a long season. There are some nights where you feel better than others and different parts of the schedule, different matchups. Really tried to take it one at a time and I’m competing and trying to do my best every night.”

Evgenii Dadonov had a hat trick, and Casey DeSmith made 35 saves for Dallas (50-22-4), which is second in the Central Division, four points behind the Winnipeg Jets and six ahead of the Colorado Avalanche.

“We left some good players in some really good spots, and they capitalized on it,” DeSmith said. “We’re trying to catch Winnipeg and they don’t lose a lot of games. So every loss we have, it stings a little bit more. This late in the year, we don’t have a lot of time left to catch them. Hopefully it’s a learning experience. Just get better holding onto leads going into playoffs.”

Bryan Rust and Blake Lizotte scored for Pittsburgh (31-34-12), which is 2-2-2 in its past six games. Tristan Jarry made 21 saves.

“I thought to a man it’s one of the more complete efforts we’ve had all year long,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I was really happy for the team. I thought we played hard all night. We were down in the game most of the game, but I thought we were playing extremely well. Just tried to encourage them to stay with it. Just keep competing, keep playing the game the right way, we’ll climb back into it.”

Lizotte scored with 1:43 remaining in the third to break a 3-3 tie on a shot from the slot to give Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead. Dallas defensemen Thomas Harley and Cody Ceci collided in their own zone, and Danton Heinen passed to Lizotte for the one-timer.

“That one hurt. For [DeSmith] to play such an unbelievable game and to give it away the way I did, it’s tough,” Harley said. “I tried to outskate their F1, he kind of got a body on me. Lost the puck, as I was just going to take it and regroup. Then me and Ceci ran into each other. Lack of communication on that one, and then I go and play the 2-on-1 [poorly]. My job is to take away the pass and I let him have it.”

Crosby then finished off his hat trick when he backhanded the puck down the length of the ice into an empty net for his 30th goal at 18:45 for the 5-3 final. Crosby reached 30 goals for the 13th season.

Crosby gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 4:16 in the first period on the power play. He picked the top glove-side corner of the net from the high slot off Evgeni Malkin’s pass from below the goal line.

Dadonov tied it 1-1 at 10:43 on a shot from the top of the crease on a breakaway after Oskar Back spotted him behind Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Karlsson.

He had not scored since Feb. 22, a span of 17 games.

Dadonov gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 12:36 in the second period when Matt Duchene spotted him on the back door on the power play.

Crosby netted his second of the game 20 seconds into the third period to tie it 2-2. Ceci turned the puck over behind the net, and Rutger McGroarty spotted Crosby driving to the front of the net.

“I thought they were a hungrier team than us, which shouldn’t be the case. I just thought from the face-off battle to individual puck battles, they were just a little hungrier than we were. Having said that, it was 2-1 going into the third, still a winnable game for us,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was execution in the third. You’ve got to make those plays under pressure. We’ve been pretty good at doing that all year, we didn’t do it enough tonight.”

Dadonov finished off his second NHL hat trick at 3:11 on a backhanded shot from the left side of the crease. Both of his hat tricks have come against Pittsburgh (Feb. 24, 2018).

“Definitely not enjoying [the hat trick] as much as I could,” Dadonov said. “I think maybe we just stayed so much in the last game where we scored four goals in the third period. We were thinking we can do that again and tried to score more rather than think about defense.”

Rust tied it 3-3 at 8:49 on a backhand shot after he forced a turnover behind the net by Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin. It was Rust’s 200th NHL goal.

“It means I’m getting old, first of all, but second of all, I’m really proud. I didn’t think I’d ever get to say that I’ve scored 200 goals in the NHL,” Rust said. “I think when the first time I came into this league I was hoping I could just stick around for a couple years and now here I am, 200 goals later. I’m really blessed and there’s more to do.”

Malkin returned after missing four games with a lower-body injury. He had an assist in 18:24 of ice time.

“I feel good. It’s not easy to come back and play against Dallas," Malkin said. "The whole game we played pretty good, all four lines. Sid’s line did a great job all night. I’m glad to be back, exciting to play and keep going."

NOTES: With his 14th hat trick, Crosby surpassed Malkin for the second most in Penguins history, behind Mario Lemieux (40). … Crosby has hat tricks against 13 different franchises, second among active players behind Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (20). … Crosby’s 43 four-point games are tied with Jaromir Jagr for the second-most in Penguins history. Lemieux has 124. … Crosby recorded his 103rd and 104th career game-tying points in the third period, which tied Malkin for the fourth-most all time. Only Wayne Gretzky (135), Mark Messier (112) and Jagr (107) have more. … With his 13th 30-goal season, Crosby extended his franchise record and became the 11th player in NHL history with as many. … Rust has 28 goals this season, tying his career high in a season. … Duchene has points in five straight games (two goals, five assists).