PITTSBURGH (AP) – Sidney Crosby has been around long enough to realize that the Pittsburgh Penguins' current problems can not be solved in a single round, a period, or even a match.

That did not stop the Pittsburgh captain from trying. Crosby scored a spectacular goal and scored two more in a 5-1 win against the Dallas Stars Wednesday night in his return to training after missing three games due to an injury at the top from the body.

"I think our team is gaining one more foot when it is part of our lineup because of the inspiration that it is for our group," said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.

For one night, it looked like that.

The Penguins started the day at the bottom of the Eastern Conference thanks to a 1-7-2 slip, an unknown territory for a team of less than 18 months of consecutive championships. The defense was at best fragile and the goalkeeper not much better.

Sullivan preached patience and stressed on Tuesday that the team did not plan to give up the frenetic style of play that has become its hallmark during his extremely successful three-year tenure.

It's a style that does not seem out of place when the number 87 Crosby is on the ice.

In desperate need of a spark two days after a nightmare defeat against Buffalo in which the Penguins let slip a three-goal lead in 30 minutes, Crosby provided one. He scored Jake Guentzel to score less than 4 minutes after the start of the game. He then marked the highlights during the first period of the first period. Pittsburgh has a 3-0 advantage just at 10:04 of the match.

"I had a bit of room to net," Crosby said. "Sometimes they go in. Sometimes you get a backup, sometimes you inflict a penalty." It was good to see her come in. "

Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Tanner Pearson also scored for the Penguins. Creating an offense, however, is rarely a problem for Pittsburgh. The biggest development against Dallas could have been the game ahead of Casey DeSmith. Pittsburgh gave up three shots in the first period, 19 in total, and was not neglected after placing it in the lead. DeSmith made 18 saves, with his white-line attempt ending at 7:55 in the third period when Mattias Janmark scored.

It was the only highlight for the Stars. Khudobin, taking the place of injured Ben Bishop, stopped only 11 of the 16 shots and was pulled out of the match when Pearson beat him with a breakaway shot to lead him to 5-0. Rookie Landon Bow played well in his NHL debut, stopping the 14 shots he faced.

"Pretty embarrassing tonight," said Dallas striker Jamie Benn. "I think we dropped our goalkeeper and let ourselves down, hard night."

This tends to happen when Crosby is at its peak. He slid a pass back on the ice in the direction of Guentzel for a pass that slipped between the pads of Khudobin to give the Penguins the advantage in 3:58 in the first period. Malkin's power stroke on the power play just over 2 minutes later doubled the Pittsburgh advantage. The Russian star was bending under the red light.

The ninth of Crosby's season ended a frantic attack from Pittsburgh in the first period with three goals against a team that had only allowed 10 goals in the first half of the season.

"I do not think I have enough prepared our team," said Dallas coach Jim Montgomery. "We were not ready to dig in. We were not ready to win clashes.In the end, this preparation is the responsibility of the head coach."

It will not be better for Dallas in a second. DeSmith stopped Tyler Seguin from going on a breakaway and a few moments later Hornqvist slumped in a rebound to push him to 4-0. The sequence was repeated when DeSmith had a shot at Janmark, leading to a breakout that ended with Pearson – acquired in an exchange with Los Angeles last week – scoring a shot for his second goal in as many games.

"It's a hellish shot, the goal it's marking tonight," Sullivan said. "My hope is that he will gain a lot of confidence by scoring two games in a row – it was our hope when we acquired him, that he could help us in this area."

NOTES: The Penguins scored a numerical advantage of 1 to 3. The Stars were 0-in-2 with the advantage of the man. … Dallas has scratched Bishop (lower body injury), D Julius Honka and F Gemel Smith. … Pittsburgh scratched D Chad Ruhwedel and F Daniel Daniel Sprong. … Pittsburgh is 6-0-1 against the Western Conference.