ice hockey
Eichel’s end-to-end rush sparks Buffalo’s 4-2 win over Vegas
PITTSBURGH, Jan 15, (AP): Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists in his first game back from abdominal surgery and the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled past Minnesota 7-3.
Crosby needed less than eight minutes to pick up his first point since before Halloween, assisting on Evgeni Malkin’s first goal of the night 7:57 in. Crosby added his sixth goal of the season in the third period when he slipped a backhand past Devan Dubnyk as the Penguins rolled to their fourth straight victory.
Malkin finished with two goals and a pretty no-look drop pass to set up Bryan Rust’s 19th of the season. Jared McCann scored for the fourth time in five games for Pittsburgh, Dominik Simon added his fifth, and Tristan Jarry stopped 25 shots to improve to 11-0-1 in his last 12 starts against Western Conference opponents.
Crosby skated 17:53 after missing 28 games following abdominal surgery and looked just as dangerous as ever as the Penguins pulled within four points of firstplace Washington in the Metropolitan Division.
Zach Parise scored twice and Marcus Foligno added his ninth for the Wild, who spotted the Penguins a four-goal lead. Dubnyk finished with 22 saves, and the Wild fell to 1-5-1 in their last seven games.
Blue Jackets 3, Bruins 0 In Columbus, Ohio, Elvis Merzlikins recorded his second consecutive shutout and Columbus beat Atlantic Division-leading Boston for its fourth win in five games.
Alexander Wennberg, Kevin Stenlund and Riley Nash scored for Columbus.
Merzlikins won for the sixth time in his last eight starts and turned aside all 34 shots he faced. His five wins since Dec. 31 tie him for the NHL lead with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Boston goaltender Jaroslav Halak entered the game at 1:12 of the first period after Tukka Rask was inadvertently struck in the head by an elbow in the crease. Halak stopped 24 shots in relief as the Bruins lost their second straight and were shut out for the first time this season.
Sabres 4, Golden Knights 2 In Buffalo, New York, Jack Eichel scored the go-ahead goal on an end-to-end rush 7:57 into the third period in Buffalo’s win over slumping Vegas.
The goal was Eichel’s career-high-matching 28th of the season and came in a game in which he added an assist to become Buffalo’s first player in 27 years to reach the 60-point mark in 46 or fewer games. Sam Reinhart had a goal and two assists, and Kyle Okposo and Curtis Lazar, with an empty-netter, also scored.
Linus Ullmark stopped 23 shots, and the Sabres improved to 4-2 in their past six.
Reilly Smith and Tomas Nosek scored for the Golden Knights, who have lost four straight to match their longest streak without a point in their three-year franchise history. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 shots.
Islanders 8, Red Wings 2 In Uniondale, New York, Brock Nelson scored twice and the Islanders routed Detroit.