Sidney Crosby is well educated on winning.
He has a trio Stanley Cup rings stowed away in a sock drawer or a fireproof safe with a biometric lock to verify that postulate.
So, he understands why the Pittsburgh Penguins are winning as of late.
“You need everybody contributing,” Crosby said Tuesday in Cranberry. “Everyone feeling a part of it to have success. We have a lot of different guys that have chipped in at different points, and you need to continue that to be consistent.”
They remained consistent in that pursuit Thursday with an emphatic 6-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at PPG Paints Arena. With 10 players recording a point, the Penguins extended their winning streak to five games.
Rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs stopped 18 of 20 shots as his record improved to 10-6-8.
After Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season 9 minutes, 32 seconds into regulation, the Penguins took control.
The hosts tied the score 112 seconds later via a determined shift by their buzzsaw of a fourth line — and perhaps some charity from the officials — that resulted in forward Connor Dewar’s 12th goal, a career high.
Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic controlled a puck on his own end boards near the right corner but fell to the ice after Penguins forward Blake Lizotte jabbed his stick into Vlasic’s right skate. That allowed Dewar to take possession of the puck on the wall and deal a pass to the lower-right circle, where linemate Noel Acciari immediately fired a wrister that was rejected by goaltender Arvid Soderblom’s left leg.
Dewar claimed the rebound to the right of the crease, fought his way toward the lower hashmarks and whipped a wrister past Soderblom’s right skate. Vlasic appeared to protest the lack of a tripping call against Lizotte but did not find a receptive audience.
Penguins rookie Ben Kindel supplied his team with its first lead of the contest by scoring his 11th goal at 5:54 of the second period.
Following a strong effort by Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon to maintain puck possession in Chicago’s slot, Penguins forward Anthony Mantha took control on the right half-wall and slipped a pass to Kindel. Advancing from the high slot to left circle, Kindel lasered a wrister through Soderblom’s legs.
Another contribution by Wotherspoon led to Penguins forward Egor Chinakhov’s ninth goal at 15:30 of the middle period.
Blackhawks forward Tyler Bertuzzi attempted a spinning wrister from the Penguins’ right point only to be flattened on the sequence by Wotherspoon. That allowed Evgeni Malkin to pick up the errant puck and initiate an offensive rush, gaining Chicago’s zone on the left wing.
Spinning off a check from Blackhawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, Malkin fed a flamboyant backhand pass to the center point for a trailing Chinakhov. Veering a bit to the right circle, Chinakhov dangled past a sluggish poke check by Blackhawks defenseman Artyom Levshunov and attacked the net, pushing a forehand shot through Soderblom’s legs.
Mantha scored his 17th goal on a breakaway to put the Penguins up by a field goal only 31 seconds later.
Off a centering pass from in front of the home bench by Kindel, Mantha rushed down the slot, approached the crease and slipped an adroit backhander through the legs of a distressed Soderblom.
Shea got in on the act late in the second period at the 19:30 mark with his third goal, a career high.
Digging a puck out of a goalmouth scramble, Mantha coolly fed a pass from the left of the crease to the near point for rookie defenseman Ilya Solovyov, making his Penguins debut. Faking a one-timer for a moment, Solovyov pulled his stick down and slid the puck to the top of the right circle, where Shea smoked a one-timer past Soderblom’s glove on the near side.
Dewar struck again at 13:59 of the third period, cleaning up a furious goalmouth scramble generated by Acciari and Lizotte with a wrister.
Blackhawks forward Connor Bedard capped the scoring with his 21st goal at 14:31 of the final frame.
