Penguins 5 - Panthers 1: What's new, Pussycat?

Four-score and twenty... Sidney Crosby smacked around the Florida Panthers for 1 goal and 3 assists in a 5-1 rout between two teams going nowhere but the golf course. Despite the lopsided score, the play itself wasn't all that lopsided. Without a good performance by Sebastian Caron, the Penguins would have found themselves on the wrong end of a shootout.

Sidney Crosby scored a goal and added three assists Friday to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers.

Konstantin Koltsov got the Penguins on the scoreboard 8:32 into the game with a short-handed goal. He took a nice pass from Sergei Gonchar and flipped it past Roberto Luongo. Ryan Malone added an assist.

Ryan Whitney punched in a rebound 1:08 later for a power-play goal. Crosby rifled a shot from the point. Tomas Surovy put the rebound on goal and Luongo made the initial save. However, the puck popped loose in the crease and Whitney poked it into the net.

The Penguins boosted their lead to 3-0 7:32 into the second period on Malone’s short-handed goal. Crosby fired a pass to Josef Melichar. He faked a shot and whipped a pass to a wide-open Malone, who buried the puck at the far post.

Crosby scored with 5:43 remaining to give the Penguins a 4-0 lead. He one-timed Andy Hilbert’s pass into the net on a beautiful give-and-go. Colby Armstrong had the other assist.

Jay Bouwmeester ripped a slap-shot past Sebastien Caron with less than seven minutes to play.

John LeClair scored a power-play goal with 2:52 to play. He one-timed Crosby’s pass into the net. Gonchar had the other assist.

Caron stopped 36 of 37 shots to earn the victory.

The Penguins return to action Saturday night in Tampa Bay.

Overall, Crosby had 4 points, +1, and 7 shots on goal in 18:11 of ice time. Crosby also finished 50+ on face-offs as he went with 10 for 18 in the dot.

Video hightlights here.