Crosby, Penguins defeat McDavid, Oilers again

PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins won for the sixth time in six games against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at PPG Paints Arena on Wednesday.

Crosby and McDavid each had an assist. Crosby has four points (two goals, two assists) against Edmonton with McDavid in the lineup; McDavid has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) against Pittsburgh with Crosby in the lineup. McDavid and the Oilers are 0-3-3 against Crosby and the Penguins.
"It's a great challenge," Crosby said. "McDavid] is pretty tough to defend. A lot of times you can be in good spots positionally, but with his speed, if you're even, you're probably in trouble."
***[WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Penguins highlights]*
Bryan Rust, Teddy Blueger and Jared McCann scored, and Matt Murray made 38 saves for Pittsburgh (30-20-7), which won a second straight game after losing its previous four (0-3-1). Murray made 50 saves in a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
"I think we're defending hard," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "I do give our players a lot of credit from the goaltender out."

Leon Draisaitl scored, and Mikko Koskinen made 31 saves for Edmonton (24-27-5), which is 1-6-2 in its past nine games.
Draisaitl gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 4:45 of the first period. McDavid carried the puck on a 2-on-1 into the Penguins zone before passing over Brian Dumoulin's stick to Draisaitl, who scored his 33rd goal on a snap shot blocker side.
"I think we couldn't capitalize on the chances that we did create," Draisaitl said. "I thought we created enough to probably win the game. We couldn't get it past [Murray]."
Rust tied it 1-1 with a shorthanded goal at 2:30 of the second period. After Rust missed a shot, Matt Cullen retrieved it before passing back to Rust behind the net, allowing him to wrap a backhand shot inside the right post for his NHL career-high 16th goal of the season.

Blueger put the Penguins ahead 2-1 at 6:10 by scoring on a rebound after Kris Letang put the puck on Koskinen from behind the net.
McDavid had a chance to tie it when he was awarded a penalty shot after Letang hooked him on a breakaway at 17:25. After slowly entering the zone, he took a wrist shot Murray kept out with a glove save.
"We had a bunch of chances to tie it," McDavid said. "I have to bear down on a couple. Credit to them. They had that four-minute stretch where they scored two and held on. ... It's frustrating, obviously. Like I said, we played a good game and we have to find a way to get points in those."
McCann made it 3-1, scoring into an empty net with 1:00 remaining in the third period.

They said it

"This is the first time since I've been here that we've played an A-game and have not got points. We've gotten points before. We did an awful lot of things really well tonight. The stuff about playing for each other on the five-man shift, we did exactly that. Neutral zone play was excellent. ... There wasn't one guy that didn't give you everything he had." -- Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock

"I just tried to stay aggressive and stay patient [on McDavid's penalty shot], like always. ... It's tough. He can switch his angle. He can do a lot. So just try to battle. Try to stay aggressive and stay patient. Let him make the first move and got lucky." -- Penguins goalie Matt Murray

Need to know

McDavid extended his point streak to eight games. He has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) during that stretch. ... McDavid, who has at least one point in 48 of 55 games this season, became the third player since 1989-90 to be held without a point seven or fewer times through 55 personal games of a season. Mario Lemieux did it in 1989-90 (three games), 1992-93 (five games) and 1995-96 (five games); Wayne Gretzky did it in 1990-91 (five games). ... Oilers forward Ty Rattie played after sustaining a lower-body injury against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. ... Dumoulin played his 300th NHL game. ... Pittsburgh played without forward Evgeni Malkin, who sat because of a one-game suspension for high-sticking Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl on Monday. ... Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese had five hits in 10:53 after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury. ... Penguins defenseman Chad Ruhwedel entered the lineup after being healthy scratched since last playing Nov. 19. ... The Penguins are 14-0-3 against the Oilers since Dec. 5, 2007, matching their longest point streak against any team in their history. They also had at least one point in 17 straight games against the Atlanta Thrashers from Jan. 27, 2000-Dec. 1, 2003.

What's next

Oilers: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-CR, SNW, NHL.TV)
Penguins: Host the Calgary Flames on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-PT, SNW, NHL.TV)