Pittsburgh's Petr Sykora tucks the puck inside the post to beat Carolina goalie Michael Leighton on Thursday. (Gerry Broome/Associated Press)

There is no player in the NHL hotter than Sidney Crosby, who notched four points in a 5-2 win for the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Crosby helped set up four Pittsburgh goals. Petr Sykora had a pair, with Pascal Dupuis, Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko also scoring. The Penguins improved to 15-6-4.

Evgeni Malkin had a pair of assists to push his NHL scoring lead total to 41 points.

But it's Crosby, second in the league with 39 points, who is the hottest player in the league. The centre has six goals and eight assists during a five-game point streak.

Pittsburgh rebounded after blowing a 2-0 lead on Wednesday, falling in the shootout to the New York Rangers.

"It would have been easy to be frustrated, because we probably deserved better," said Crosby. "We expected [Carolina] to come out strong with a new coach and everything like that.

"We knew they'd be motivated. I think it was important to weather the storm."

The Penguins will complete a spell of three straight road games with a matinee game Saturday in Ottawa (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 2 p.m. ET).

Carolina's Tuomo Ruutu took a boarding penalty midway through the first, a hit that riled Crosby and the Penguins.

Defensive lapses

The Penguins didn't score on that penalty but they forced another one not long after, with Niclas Wallin going off for hooking. Crosby went to work on the ensuing power play. He set up Sykora's first goal and the Penguins were off and running.

The Hurricanes lost for the fifth time in six games.

The home side tried to come back in the second period on goals from Ruutu and Matt Cullen, but defensive lapses and poor goaltending from Michael Leighton were too much to overcome.

Leighton finished with 17 saves. Carolina's No. 1 netminder Cam Ward injured his groin in the team's loss Sunday.

The result spoiled the returns for Paul Maurice and Justin Williams.

Maurice was coaching the first game of his second tenure with the club after replacing Peter Laviolette, who was fired Wednesday. Maurice previously held the job for the franchise between 1995 and 2003.

"We made some — I guess glaring would be the word — mistakes, where you look at it and you may not see that mistake made again," said Maurice.

Williams, 26, was expected to miss four to six months of action after tearing his right Achilles tendon during an off-ice workout in September. He had surgery to repair the tear.

Dupuis connects

Less than two minutes after Sykora's wrister put Pittsburgh up, Dupuis stripped Josef Melichar of the puck and then drove hard to the net to accept Crosby's deft pass for the goal.

"They didn't shoot the puck down, and they turned it over on their blue-line, and we came back at them," Sykora said of the second goal.

With Ruutu again in the penalty box early in the second, Sykora notched his second goal. Leighton stopped Malkin's shot from the point, but the rebound went right to Sykora at the side of the net for the 3-0 goal.

Ruutu tried to atone, sneaking behind big Penguins defenceman Hal Gill and beating Dany Sabourin in the slot.

The teams exchanged goals before Fedotenko converted a Malkin play for a 5-2 lead late in the second.

Sabourin was strong in the third period to quell any Carolina rally, making big saves on Eric Staal and Joni Pitkanen.

The Penguins goalie finished with 33 saves and has a 6-2 record.

The Hurricanes fell to 12-12-2. They were beaten by Pittsburgh 4-1 in an Oct. 25 game.

With files from the Associated Press