Evgeni Malkin finished with two goals and one assist, and Dominik Simon also scored twice as the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the visiting Minnesota Wild 6-3 Thursday night.

Sidney Crosby also added three assists and moved into second place in team history with 1,082 points. Before the game, Crosby had been tied with Jaromir Jagr.

Carl Hagelin added a goal and an assist, Brian Dumoulin had a goal, and Phil Kessel contributed three assists in the victory.

Goalie Casey DeSmith finished with 23 saves for Pittsburgh, which jumped on top 6-0 before the Wild scored three late goals.

The Penguins now head into the All-Star break with seven wins in their past nine games.

Minnesota is 4-1-1 in its past six games and 6-2-2 this month but it never got started in this contest.

The Penguins scored four goals in the first 31 minutes, chasing Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk.

The first goal came after a Minnesota turnover when Crosby pulled in the loose puck and fed Simon, who beat Dubnyk 3:54 into the game.

Crosby also got an assist when Malkin scored at the 9:09 mark of the first period. Malkin was trying to make a pass from behind the Wild cage when the puck deflected off defenseman Ryan Suter and in.

The Penguins added two more goals in the second period.

The first came when Malkin made a quick centering pass to Hagelin, who scored from between the circles at 9:28.

Pittsburgh stretched the lead to 4-0 on a beautiful three-pass sequence started by Crosby that ended with Dumoulin scoring from in front with 9:05 left in the middle period.

That ended Dubnyk's night, and Alex Stalock came on in relief.

The Wild appeared to get their first goal later in the second period, but the officials waved it off due to goalie interference.

Malkin and Simon added third-period goals, making it 6-0. For Malkin, it was his second power-play goal, and it also deflected in off a Minnesota player.

The Wild made it interesting when Eric Staal, Mikael Granlund and Jonas Brodin scored just over three minutes apart midway through the third period, cutting the deficit to 6-3.

Staal also added an assist while Marcus Foligno finished with two. Stalock stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced.

--Field Level Media