VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Sidney Crosby knows there’s been plenty of talk about his lack of offensive production through the first month of the season.

He quieted the doubters, at least for a little while, on Wednesday night.

Crosby scored his second goal of the season — and first in six games — to help the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2.

The Pittsburgh captain came in with just one goal and four assists and had been held off the scoresheet in nine of his team’s first 11 games.

“That happens sometimes,” said Crosby. “There’s not always a great explanation, but you’ve got to find a way to ultimately figure it out and produce. That’s really been my focus. Dwelling on what’s said is not really going to help the puck go in the net.”

David Perron and Eric Fehr also scored, and Phil Kessel had two assists as the Penguins won their fifth straight and improved to 8-1-0 after starting the season with three losses. Marc-Andre Fleury made 18 saves.

Crosby scored on a 4-on-3 power play after taking a nice feed from Kessel in front and beating Ryan Miller on a slick backhand to make it 2-0 at 7:17 of the third.

“I think my own expectations are the ones I try to meet and those are probably higher than anyone else’s,” said Crosby. “I expect a lot of myself and I work hard to try and make sure I’m doing my job and creating things and producing.”

Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen had goals for Vancouver, and Miller stopped 20 shots.

“We had a good first part of the second period and our last 10 minutes was good,” Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. “Other than that we sat back too much and played too slow to be able to beat them.”

The Penguins made it 3-1 just 2:55 after Crosby’s goal on a short-handed rush when Fehr skated around Vancouver defenseman Yannick Weber on a delayed penalty and roofed a shot on Miller for his second of the season.

Just back from injury after signing with Pittsburgh as a free agent in the offseason, Fehr is the first player in NHL history to score short-handed in each of his first two games with a team.

“We’ve been on the power play before,” Fehr said. “You know how tough it is when penalty killers keep coming at you and don’t give you a chance to set up. That’s what we have done the last couple of games.”