• Who: Penguins (30-34-12) vs. Stars (50-21-4)
• What: NHL regular season, Game 77
• When: 3:20 p.m. Eastern
• Where: American Airlines Center
• Goaltenders: Tristan Jarry (13-14-5, .892 SV%) vs. Casey DeSmith (14-6-1, .922 SV%)
• TV: ABC
• Radio: Penguins Radio Network
• Streaming: ESPN+ 
• Boxscore: NHL.com
• Media notes: Penguins | Stars

► FOLLOW ALONG

• Final. Penguins win, 5-3. Sidney Crosby with a hat trick, and goal from Bryan Rust and Blake Lizotte, too. Onto Chicago tomorrow.

• GOAL: Sidney Crosby with an empty net tally to complete the hat trick. Fired it from the Penguins' own slot, near 200 feet. Penguins' second hat trick of the season. Penguins 5, Stars 3

• GOAL: Blake Lizotte gives the Penguins a lead with 1:46 left. Thomas Harley and Cody Ceci ran into each other, causing Harley to lose the puck. Danton Heinen recovered it and got it over to Lizotte. Penguins 4, Stars 3

• Two minutes. Penguins have a 38-23 lead in shots.

• Down to five minutes left.

• That's Bryan Rust's 200th goal. It's his 28th of the season and 58th point of the season, both tying his career highs.

• Penguins are outshooting the Stars 35-18. Crazy.

• GOAL: Bryan Rust ties it. Stars turned the puck over behind the net. Sidney Crosby recovers the puck along the wall and finds Rust in front, Rust tucks the puck around Casey DeSmith's pads. Penguins 3, Stars 3

• The Penguins have one hat trick this season, by the way. Bryan Rust in a 9-2 win over Montreal in December.

• GOAL: Evgenii Dadonov regains the lead and completes the hat trick. Backand shot just in front of the crease. Stars 3, Penguins 2

• GOAL: Sidney Crosby ties it. Rutger McGroarty was on the goal line, found Crosby in the slot with a backhand pass, Crosby drops to one knee and fires it in. Penguins 2, Stars 2

• Third period is underway.

• End of the second, Penguins trail 2-1. Penguins have a big 23-13 lead in shots.

• GOAL: Evgenii Dadonov's second of the game gives the Stars the lead. Both Connor Dewar and Matt Grzelcyk whiffed on picking off the pass that set it up. Stars 2, Penguins 1

• More PK time for Rutger McGroarty.

• Now the Penguins get on the PK with 9:05 left in the period. Kris Letang for holding. He disagrees with the call. 

• Power play comes to an end.

• Sidney Crosby just took a baseball swing in mid-air at a puck from Ville Koivunen. Went over the net, but still cool.

• Make that five shots now for Matt Grzelcyk.

• Penguins to the power play with 11:23 left in the second. Roope Hintz tripped Ville Koivunen. Both rookies drawing penalties today.

• Evgeni Malkin sets up Ville Koivunen from behind the net, great quick shot from Koivunen that is stopped.

• Matt Grzelcyk has four of the Penguins' 15 shots.

• Bryan Rust tripped and slid over Tristan Jarry and pushed him out of the net while the Stars had the puck. Erik Karlsson, Conor Timmins help prevent a disaster. Big block from Bryan Rust right at the end too as Jarry gets back into the net.

• Penguins are outshooting the Stars 3-1 in the first five minutes of this period.

• I don't know why the official lineup still has Erik Karlsson on the left and Conor Timmins on the right, they've been flipped every game for awhile now.

• Second period is underway.

• End of the first. It's tied 1-1, with Sidney Crosby scoring the Penguins' lone goal. Penguins have a 12-8 lead in shots.

• Tristan Jarry again bails them out on a 2-on-1.

• Nothing on the power play.

• Tristan Jarry stops Mikael Granlund on a shorthanded 2-on-1. 

• Penguins get another power play with 5:28 left in the period. Ilya Lyubushkin hooked Rutger McGroarty.

• GOAL: Evgenii Dadonov ties it. Gets past Erik Karlsson and roofs the puck top-shelf. Penguins 1, Stars 1.

• Per Bob Grove: That was the 61st regular-season goal in which Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have ever factored in on together. It's Crosby's 21st goal assisted by those two.

• Noel Acciari just flattened Lian Bichshel with a huge hit.

• That's a 12-game point streak for Sidney Crosby

• GOAL: Sidney Crosby, with 26 seconds left in the power play. Evgeni Malkin was behind the net, found Crosby in the slot and Crosby beats Casey DeSmith blocker-side. Kris Letang will get the secondary helper there. A rare all-core goal. Penguins 1, Stars 0

• Top unit, same as last game; Matt Grzelcyk, Ville Koivunen, Sidney Crosby, Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust

• Penguins get a power play now. Mason Marchment tripped Kris Letang wih 17:20 left in the period.

• Penguins kill the penalty.

• Wyatt Johnston gets a partial breakaway immediately as the power play starts. and Tristan Jarry makes the save on the first shot of the game.

• Penguins to the PK. Kris Letang is called for hooking just 21 seconds in.

• This is underway.

• Same combinations used in practice yesterday. Welcome back, Evgeni Malkin.

Rutger McGroarty - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Ville Koivunen - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell 
Connor Dewar - Kevin Hayes - Phil Tomasino
Danton Heinen - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang
Erik Karlsson - Conor Timmins
Ryan Graves - Ryan Shea

• One of the more elaborate logos for Sidney Crosby to trace in warmups: Dr. Pepper.

• Evgeni Malkin is on the ice for warmups