Tatar, Vanek guide Red Wings to victory
PITTSBURGH: Tomas Tatar and Thomas Vanek scored early third-period goals to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL on Sunday.
Nick Jensen and Steve Ott also scored and Luke Glendening added an emptynetter for the Red Wings, who completed a back-to-back sweep of Washington and Pittsburgh, two of the top teams in the league. Petr Mrazek made 24 saves for his second win in as many days, having lost his previous four games.
Detroit defeated Washington in a shootout at home Saturday and followed with the win at Pittsburgh, the NHL’s best home team. It was the Red Wings’ second victory against Pittsburgh this season.
Detroit, which lost five straight before the weekend victories, remained near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, but within striking distance of the final playoff spot.
Sidney Crosby scored his league-leading 32nd goal and Tom Kuhnhackl added his third with the Penguins short-handed. The Penguins lost in regulation for the first time since the All-Star break.
RANGERS 2, CAPITALS 1
In New York, Mats Zuccarello scored a third-period goal and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves, powering the Rangers to the victory.
Ryan McDonagh scored in the first period for New York, which has won seven of eight overall and five in a row at home.
Alex Ovechkin scored a second-period powerplay goal for Washington. The firstplace Capitals lost their second straight after a six-game winning streak. Philipp Grubauer made 28 saves for Washington.
Tied 1-1 entering the third period, Grubauer made two saves on Jimmy Vesey. Lundqvist answered with a nice glove stop on John Carlson’s slap shot about seven minutes into the period.
Zuccarello broke the tie after Mika Zibanejad won a faceoff in the Washington zone and sent a pass to Chris Kreider. Kreider passed to Zuccarello, who beat Grubauer for his 12th of the season at 8:37.