Sidney Crosby's hat trick, Penguins resilience power them to impressive win over Stars

Jason Mackey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Apr 5, 2025

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Two nights after the Pittsburgh Penguins battled and tied a game late in St. Louis, forcing overtime against arguably the NHL’s hottest team, they one-upped themselves Saturday at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

The Stars have been picked by many as a Stanley Cup favorite. The Penguins also trailed several times in the game, only to keep clawing back.

The Penguins took advantage of a Dallas miscue at 18:17 of the third period, and Blake Lizotte scored a two-on-one goal to push them in front for good. Sidney Crosby would add an empty-net goal to complete a hat trick, the perfect ending to Pittsburgh’s 5-3 victory.

Defensemen Cody Ceci and Thomas Harley collided. That afforded Danton Heinen a two-on-one, with Lizotte converting for his 11th of the year.

Dallas was 8-0-2 in its last 10 and had won seven in a row. Furthermore, at home, the Stars were 28-7-2 — among the best NHL teams on home ice. It didn’t matter. The Penguins delivered one of their finest performances of the season.

After trailing 2-1 and 3-2, Bryan Rust and the Penguins would not go away — tying the score at 3 with his opportunistic goal at 8:49 of the third. It started when defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin lost his footing.

Crosby gathered the loose puck, found Rust, and the Penguins winger whirled around one of his former teammates, Casey DeSmith, who started for Dallas.

Despite a 17-game goal drought prior to this one for Stars left wing Evgenii Dadonov, you never would have known it considering his impressive performance — a hat trick, Dadonov’s first since scoring three goals against the Penguins (while with the Panthers) in February 2018.

Dadonov completed it with his goal at 3:11 of the third period. Harley tossed a puck toward the goal. Somehow, the Penguins failed to mark Dadonov in front of Tristan Jarry.

Instead of shooting right away, Dadonov waited and waited and flipped a backhander past Jarry for a 3-2 Stars lead.

Dallas actually led, 2-1, after two periods, but Crosby tied it with his second of the game just 20 seconds into the third period.

Rust did an excellent job on the forecheck. Rutger McGroarty provided a quick, one-touch pass, and Crosby converted all alone in front for his 29th of the season.

While the Penguins’ power play was actually fairly effective Saturday, the Stars flexed their offensive muscle with a man-advantage marker in the second period, one that gave the home team a 2-1 lead.

Stationed in the right corner, center Matt Duchene saw left wing Dadonov cut back door and saucered a gorgeous pass through the slot.

Lizotte was caught out of position, and Dadonov finished for his second of the game at 12:35.

After Crosby handed the Penguins an early lead, a mistake by Erik Karlsson helped the Stars tie the game at 10:43 of the opening period thanks to Dadonov’s first of the game.

Karlsson allowed Dadonov to slip behind him, and center Oskar Bäck delivered another slick pass.

It didn’t take long for Crosby to stretch his point streak to 12 games — and to do so in impressive fashion. His goal came off an assist from Evgeni Malkin, who returned from a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury.

On the Penguins’ first power play of the game, Malkin had possession behind the Stars net when the home team over-committed to McGroarty. That left Crosby alone atop the slot, and he scored at 4:16.

That stretched his point streak to 12 games, the longest active one in the NHL and tied for the fourth-longest point streak of his career. It also ties Crosby for the longest point streak by a player age 37 or older in NHL history.

Around the boards

— Kris Letang’s secondary assist on Crosby’s goal gave him eight points in his last 15 games against the Stars.

— Joona Koppanen and Vladislav Kolyachonok were the Penguins’ scratches. Tommy Novak missed an 11th game with a lower-body injury.

— Tristan Jarry got another start in net for the Penguins and stopped 21 of 24.

Coming up next

The Penguins will complete their back-to-back set of games with a 6 p.m. ET puck drop in Chicago, where the Blackhawks had accumulated the second-fewest points (50) in the National Hockey League.

____