Wild man beats Penguins
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Guillaume Latendresse hasn't been with the Minnesota Wild long enough for most of their fans to even memorize the spelling of his name.
In a short time with his new team, though, Latendresse has given the Wild all they could hope for.
Latendresse scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period after getting a career-high three assists, giving the Wild enough to beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Monday.
"He gives us a lift when we need it," said teammate Cal Clutterbuck. "He's really good down low at chewing up the block in the offensive zone, and he's been huge for us."
For a bigger forward, though, Latendresse has shown better-than-advertised skating ability. He back-checked well and drew raves from coach Todd Richards for smart, tough plays along the boards.
"His play is elevated, and you can see that he's real confident," Richards said, adding: "If he gets a step on you, you're beat. There's nothing you can do to stop him."
An audible scattering of Sid the Kid supporters were in attendance to cheer for the defending Stanley Cup champions among the fifth-largest regular-season crowd in Wild history. But Latendresse upstaged the NHL's brightest young star for a night at least, even with Crosby getting an assist and two goals.
In the 2003 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft, before they became pros, Crosby was the No. 1 pick and Latendresse went No. 2.
Latendresse, who came from Montreal for Benoit Pouliot in a trade of underperforming young players two months ago, sneaked in behind Alex Goligoski during a 2-on-3 rush while Kyle Brodziak drew his defender out. Latendresse, who has 10 goals and five assists in 20 games with Minnesota, was in position to punch in the winner.
For only the fifth time in 22 games this season, the Penguins lost after scoring first, this time on Crosby's early goal. He later tied the game at 3 in the first minute of the third period to move past Marian Gaborik for second place in the NHL with 29 goals.
Former Wild forward Pascal Dupuis set up Crosby's first score and added a goal of his own for Pittsburgh, which again struggled on the power play and had another quiet game from struggling star Evgeni Malkin.
The Penguins went 0 for 6 in extra-skater situations, and Malkin was a minus-2 with three shots on goal and two giveaways. He is scoreless in 12 of his last 13 games, with a three-goal game against Ottawa on Dec. 23 standing out in the slump.
