Penguins rally to top Rangers
Blues shut out Wild for 10th consecutive victory
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins survived a four-minute penalty kill and went on the hunt against the New York Rangers.
Kris Letang scored his second goal of the game and Evgeni Malkin scored twice in a span of six minutes, helping the Penguins beat the Rangers 6-5 on Sunday.
Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Brian Dumoulin also scored for the Penguins (31-21-7), who leapfrogged the Carolina Hurricanes for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
“At the beginning of the third, getting that kill, it gave us such a boost,” Letang said. “And then we got a bunch of goals.”
Forty-nine seconds after Sidney Crosby’s high-sticking double minor expired, Letang took a feed from Crosby and beat goalie Alexandar Georgiev to give the Penguins the lead with 15:24 left.
Malkin then scored twice in a span of 2:31 to give him four goals in two games since serving a one-game suspension for a stick-swinging incident.
Mats Zuccarello had two goals, and Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad scored over the game’s final 5:46 for the Rangers. Crosby had three assists to give him 11 points in his past five games for the Penguins.
BLUES 4, WILD 0: In St. Paul, Minn., Jordan Binnington made 31 saves and St. Louis posted its third straight shutout, beating Minnesota for the Blues’ 10th straight victory.
Binnington made 21 saves to blank Arizona on Thursday night, and Jake Allen stopped 32 shots in a 3-0 victory at Colorado on Saturday.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists and Ryan O’Reilly, Vince Dunn and Brayden Schenn also scored to help St. Louis match the best winning streak in franchise history, completed in January 2002. The run also ties the Blues for the longest streak in the NHL this season.
FLYERS 3, RED WINGS 1: In Detroit, Ivan Provorov broke a tie early in the third period and Oskar Lindblom had two goals in Philadelphia’s victory over Detroit.
The Flyers have won 12 of their last 14 games, moving into contention for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Carter Hart made 37 saves, allowing only Darren Helm’s second-period goal.
PANTHERS 6, CANADIENS 3: In Sunrise, Fla., Aleksander Barkov had his second career hat trick and added an assist for his third four-point game, helping Florida beat Montreal.
Riley Sheahan, Frank Vatrano and Denis Malgin also scored and James Reimer stopped 28 shots. Max Domi scored twice for the Canadiens, and Brendan Gallagher also had a goal. Antti Niemi allowed three goals on nine shots before being replaced by Carey Price.
DEVILS 4, SABRES 1: In Newark, N.J., Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists and Cory Schneider made 34 saves to lead New Jersey past Buffalo.
Miles Wood, Jesper Bratt and Joey Anderson also scored to help the Devils win consecutive games for the second time since the start of the year. Sam Reinhart scored for the Sabres.
DUCKS 5, CAPITALS 2: In Anaheim, Calif., Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg scored two goals apiece and the Ducks used a three-goal third period to defeat Washington.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 40th goal of the season, and John Carlson added a goal for the Capitals.