Penguins spoil Fleury’s Pittsburgh homecoming

Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel each had a goal and an assist during a five-goal spurt to rally the Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Golden Knights on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, spoiling the homecoming for Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Ryan Reaves, Ian Cole and Jake Guentzel also scored goals and Matt Murray finished with 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which won its eighth straight home game. Sidney Crosby added two assists.

William Karlsson, James Neal, Ryan Carpenter and Jonathan Marchessault scored goals for the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights, who lost for just the second time in 24 games when scoring the first goal of a game.

Fleury, a key member on three Stanley Cup championship teams in 13 seasons with the Penguins, finished with 33 saves. The No. 1 pick of the 2003 NHL Draft, who set team records for games, minutes played, wins and shutouts, picked up his 2017 Stanley Cup ring from owner Mario Lemieux before the game and also received a special video tribute and lengthy standing ovation during the first break in the first period.

In other NHL action, Nicklas Backstrom scored his 200th career goal with 43 seconds left to give the Washington Capitals a 3-2 victory over the host Columbus Blue Jackets.

Alex Ovechkin began the game-winning play by sending the puck toward the net, and T.J. Oshie got it in the left circle and made a blind pass to the right side. Backstrom was waiting and fired it past Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Backstrom, who also had an assist in the game, became the fifth Washington player to reach the 200-goal mark. Ovechkin added two assists.

Meanwhile, Jordan Weal’s goal with 3.1 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Philadelphia Flyers a 2-1 road victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Weal’s goal – ending his eight-game point drought – came on only the second overtime shot for the Flyers after the Hurricanes dictated play for much of the extra session.

Wayne Simmonds scored the Flyers’ earlier goal. Elias Lindholm scored for the Hurricanes, who dropped to 2-2-1 on a season-high, eight-game home-stand.

Also, Sean Kuraly and Danton Heinen each had a goal and an assist as the Boston Bruins earned a tight 3-2 conquest at the Detroit Red Wings for their eighth win in nine games.

David Krejci scored the other goal for the Bruins. Boston goalie Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots and has given up just four goals over the past three games.

Martin Frk had a power-play goal and an assist for Detroit, XIJDI IBT MPTU GPVS PG JUT QBTU TJY HBNFT