Crosby leads Penguins past Red Wings 5-1

Detroit — Star players usually shine in the biggest games, and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby certainly did that Saturday for his team.

Crosby had two goals and an assist leading the Penguins - who are clawing to get into the playoffs this final week - past the Red Wings 5-1 at Little Caesars Arena.

With the three points, Crosby became only the 15th player in NHL history to reach the 1,500-point milestone. Pittsburgh temporarily moved into an Eastern Conference wild-card spot, pending Saturday night's results.

"That was pretty impressive," said Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde, who replayed a conversation with assistant coach Alex Tanguay between periods. "After his (Crosby's) second goal, Alex Tanguay, and Alex has been around a lot, played over 1,000 games, and his exact quote was 'Sidney wants to get in the playoffs'.

"He was pretty darn good."

Perron spent part of two seasons in Pittsburgh and got to know Crosby, and the Penguins' Hall of Fame core including Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Perron saw these types of games before, with Crosby taking charge in a crucial situation.

"Incredibly impressive performance that he puts up at the right time," Perron said. "Those two goals, the power play shot we had a good look on the bench and he puts it in a good spot in the net where (goaltender Ville) Husso is screened and can't see the puck.

"I've seen it from the other bench. He's just a great guy, and he keeps working at his game. I ran into him at the All-Star break, we were at the same hotel and got to spend some time with him, he just keeps working at it. He wants to keep getting better and that's kind of what drives me when you see those guys do it and why not do the same thing?"

Pius Suter scored for the Wings (35-34-10), who couldn't muster the type of offense they've been able to generate recently (five or more goals three consecutive games). Husso stopped 23 shots.

"It's a lesson learned," Lalonde said. "There were some stretches we played pretty well, we had a real good start. But there were some growth mistakes.

"It's why I like these games. That is a team fighting for their playoff lives and they played a real good game. We had flashes of being good, but just some of our egregious mistakes ended up on the wrong players' sticks."

Alex Nylander, Danton Heinen and Evgeni Malkin also scored for Pittsburgh (40-30-10), while goalie Tristan Jarry made 20 saves.

BOX SCORE: Penguins 5, Red Wings 1

Crosby's goal with three seconds left in the first period was a gut-punch.

Jake Guentzel knocked the puck off Jake Walman's stick deep in the zone and Crosby gathered it, then backhanded a shot past Husso, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead.

"Huge dagger," Lalonde said. "To come out of that 2-0, especially how well we played in stretches in that period, and literally just before that our power play had been good but if even if you don't (score) you get those type of looks and it builds momentum, and obviously that momentum was taken away with that goal against."

After Heinen and Suter traded goals 42 seconds apart midway in the second period, Crosby supplied another crushing goal.

Kris Letang found Crosby near the hashmarks, and Crosby fired his 33rd goal, the 1,500th point of his career.

"It was basically their season for them and we knew they'd come out and we tried to match that (intensity)," Perron said. "That was the message before the game, that we want to be in that spot they're in, next year. But those mistakes, especially this time of year, if you have them in important games, it just kills you and that's what happened."

The Wings close out the regular season with their home finale Monday against Dallas, then finish on the road in Carolina (Tuesday) and Tampa (Thursday).

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tkulfan