Malkin put the Penguins up 1-0 at 8:28 of the first period when he put a wrist shot far side past the right foot of Blackwood Blackwood. He cut through the right circle into the high slot and scored while falling to the ice.
Rust pushed it to 2-0 at 8:57, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with Crosby. Crosby took the puck down the left side and sent Rust a cross-ice pass to the right of the crease for the tap-in.
Crosby’s assist was the 1,110th of his career, passing Joe Thornton and moving him into sole possession of seventh place in NHL history.
“When they started taking momentum, I didn’t think we were able to put some shifts together to just pause it a little bit more,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “I thought the first period, we came out, they were doing a lot of the things that I know that this group is capable of when we’re on. It’s just the consistency throughout the entire game.”
Lehkonen cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:01 when he put home a centering feed from MacKinnon under Silovs’ blocker. MacKinnon skated the puck in down the right side, cut outside and around Pittsburgh defenseman Declan Carlile, and fed Lehkonen as he crashed the net.
“He’s been good,” MacKinnon said of Lehkonen. “He’s always getting to the right areas. We got a good warmup going before the game, me and ‘Lehks.’ Good chemistry in the gym, and it’s translating.”
Lehkonen tied it 2-2 just 25 seconds into the second period. He gloved down MacKinnon’s rebound after it glanced off the right post, dropped the puck in the blue paint, and backhanded it five-hole.
“’Art’s like the unsung hero. He doesn’t get enough credit,” Blackwood said. “Everybody in here really appreciates him. He knows how much we value him.
“I’m not surprised. I see it in practice all the time. Yeah, he does it all the time. It’s not surprising to me, but I’m sure to a lot of people it is.”