The Penguins won their third game in a row, 3-1, over the Montreal Canadiens tonight at Mellon Arena.

At 17-8, the Penguins have tied a franchise record for wins over the first 25 games of a season. They were 17-6-2 in 1994-95 and 17-5-3 in 1995-96.

Sidney Crosby opened the scoring at 9:21 of the first period when he used a Montreal defenseman as a screen and his shot from the top of the left circle went over the shoulder of Canadiens goaltender Carey Price for a 1-0 Penguins lead.

Bill Guerin increased the Penguins' lead to 2-0 at 6:41 of the second period. He got his second whack at the puck under goaltender Carey Price after getting the puck from Evgeni Malkin, who dug it out of the left corner.

Sergei Gonchar's backhand shot gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead at 16:56 of the second period. He came cruising down the slot and took a nice feed from Crosby, who spun along the left-wing boards.

With the assist, Crosby reached 279 for his career, moving him ahead of Ron Stackhouse and into 10th place by himself in franchise history.

Max Pacioretty ruined Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's bid for a 16th career shutout when he converted a drop pass from Sergei Kostitsyn to make it 3-1 at 7:17 of the third period.

The Penguins next play Friday afternoon on the road against the New York Islanders.

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