The Penguins walked into Xcel Energy Center on Sunday coming off of a 4-game losing streak and their most recent defeat being a 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday night. They looked to snap that as they faced old friend and Penguins legend Marc-Andre Fleury and the Minnesota Wild. And snap the losing streak they did as Crosby scored twice, Malkin scored once, and Jarry made 29-of-30 stops in the 3-1 victory. This is the final time that Crosby, Malkin, and Letang will ever face Fleury, and they made the best of it in this one.
First Period
Nothing of significance happened in the first period aside from one penalty on each team as Matt Grzelcyk and Mats Zuccarello took penalties 1:22 apart late in the first period but nothing came of either penalty.
The Wild took a 10-7 shots advantage into the second period as neither team were able to put a goal on the board.
Second Period
There also was not much to report on in the second period as most of it was boring. But we did finally have a goal put up on the board. Evgeni Malkin capitalized on a rebound on the powerplay and beat his old buddy Fleury for a 1-0 Penguins lead.
The Penguins took a 1-0 lead into the third period despite being outshot 20-13.
Third Period
This period is where the action picked up as Crosby put the Penguins ahead 2-0 on quite the shot and quite the pass from Erik Karlsson.
Ryan Hartman got one back for the Wild to make it 2-1 with 5:06 to play in the game as there should have been a penalty called on the Wild right beforehand but it went uncalled and the Wild made it 2-1.
Crosby sealed it with an empty netter with 1:13 to go and that was all she wrote as the Penguins snapped the losing streak and beat their old buddy for the final time.