Rust, Guentzel power Penguins past Senators

Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel each scored twice Friday as the Pittsburgh Penguins held on for a 5-3 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators for their second straight win. Pittsburgh had been 1-7-1 against teams last in their division. Ottawa sits at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Teddy Blueger also scored, and Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby each had two assists for the Penguins, who built leads of 3-0 and 4-1. Goaltender Casey DeSmith stopped 37 of 40 Senators shots.

Bobby Ryan, Mikkel Boedker and Matt Duchene scored for Ottawa, which lost its third in a row. Anders Nilsson made 35 saves and picked up an assist.

The Penguins played without center Evgeni Malkin. The team announced before the game he has an upper-body injury. Pittsburgh did have Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann in the lineup. They were acquired earlier in the day in a trade with Florida and arrived about 15 minutes before puck drop. Bjugstad picked up a secondary assist.

Blueger, playing in his second NHL game, got his first goal to open the scoring at 3:19 of the first. Matt Cullen dug the puck out of the corner and set up a Blueger blast from the left dot. At 17:35 of the first, Guentzel scored his 25th to give Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead. He scored on a one-timer off a backhand feed from Crosby.

Rust scored his 12th goal in the past 21 games to make it 3-0 at 11:36 of the second. His shot from the top of the slot went over Nilsson's glove. On an Ottawa power play, Ryan cut it to 3-1 at 15:00 of the second. He sped to the net and converted a feed from Ryan Dzingel.

Rust struck again at 8:05 of the third, snapping a high shot from the inner edge of the right circle for a 4-1 Pittsburgh lead. The Senators got another power-play goal, on Boedker's one-timer at 13:46 of the third, closing it to 4-2, and Duchene scored his 21st on a breakaway at 15:08 to make it a one-goal game.

Guentzel restored some breathing room with 2:52 left. --Field Level Media

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