Crosby halts his scoreless skid
PITTSBURGH: Sidney Crosby ended a long goal drought and assisted on Conor Sheary’s winner 16 seconds into overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Crosby scored his sixth of the season, Sheary had a pair of goals and Patric Hornqvist added one for Pittsburgh. Phil Kessel got his eighth of the season and has goals in four straight games. Kessel, the team’s leading scorer, has at least one point in five straight games — and 16 of 20 this season.
Matt Murray made 28 saves for the Penguins, who won their sixth in a row at home. Pittsburgh are 12-0-1 in their last 13 games against the Sabres, including seven consecutive wins at home.
Crosby scored for the first time in 11 games, and Buffalo’s Jack Eichel ended an eight-game drought, both i n the second period.
In St Paul, Devan Dubnyk posted his third straight shut-out with 30 saves and Nino Niederreiter scored 12 seconds into the game for Minnesota in a 3-0 win against Philadelphia.
Dubnyk’s third shut-out of the season stretched his scoreless streak to 195:05 minutes, breaking his mark of 183:16 set last season for the longest in team history. Dubnyk has stopped the last 103 shots he’s faced.
Eric Staal and Jason Zucker each scored an empty-net goal for Minnesota, who have won a season-best three straight.
Brian Elliott made 17 saves for Philadelphia, shut out for an NHL-high fifth time this season. Niederreiter broke Zucker’s streak of six straight goals for the Wild, one shy of the NHL record for consecutive goals scored by a player for one team.
In Edmonton, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid each had two goals for Edmonton in a 8-2 victory over Vegas.
Oscar Klefbom, Patrick Maroon, Matt Benning and Mark Letestu also scored for the Oilers, who snapped a two-game skid. Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and James Neal had the goals for the expansion Golden Knights, who have lost three of four.
In Nashville, Mattias Ekholm and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and an assist to lead Nashville past Washington 6-3 for their fifth straight victory. Craig Smith, Nick Bonino, Filip Forsberg and Miikka Salomaki also scored for Nashville.
TJ Oshie scored twice and Alex Chiasson
also had a goal for Washington, who had won two consecutive games.
In Montreal, Zach Werenski scored 1:09 minutes into overtime, lifting Columbus over Canadiens 2-1. Josh Anderson had a goal 2:29 into the game for Columbus, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves, allowing only a goal to Paul Byron early in the third period.
In Sunrise, Jonathan Huberdeau had two power-play goals and Vincent Trocheck scored the winner in a shoot-out to lift Florida over Dallas 4-3.
In Winnipeg, Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves and Winnipeg defeated Arizona 4-1 for their second victory over the struggling Coyotes in four days.