Minus ill Lundqvist, Rangers find way to edge Penguins
PITTSBURGH » Ondrej Pavelec stopped 41 shots while filling in for late scratch Henrik Lundqvist to help the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
Boo Nieves, Jesper Fast, Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich scored in support of Pavelec, who drew the spot start because Lundqvist had the flu. Buchnevich provided the game-winner when his centering pass deflected off Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang and by Tristan Jarry 11:12 into the third period.
Phil Kessel picked up his teamhigh 13th goal for the Penguins. Conor Sheary added his ninth and Patric Hornqvist his 11th for Pittsburgh, which saw its season-high four-game winning streak snapped. Jarry finished with 25 saves but could only watch the puck smack off Letang’s stick and flutter by to give the Rangers the lead for good.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was held scoreless as his streak of five straight multipoint games ended. DEVILS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1 » Stefan Noesen, Taylor Hall and Jesper Bratt each had a goal and an assist, and Cory Schneider made 41 saves to lift New Jersey over Columbus.
Travis Zajac also scored and rookie Nico Hischier had two assists for the Devils, one of several teams tussling with Columbus for first place in the rugged Metropolitan Division with a third of the season in the books. Schneider was outstanding in earning his 100th win with New Jersey during his fifth season with the franchise.
Nick Foligno scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 32 saves for the Blue Jackets, who lost their second straight. The NHL’s worst power play went 0 for 6. LIGHTNING 6, ISLANDERS 2 » Yanni Gourde scored two of Tampa Bay’s three goals late in the second period against New York.
After the Islanders dominated the first 16 minutes of the second, Gourde had a power-play rebound goal at 16:22 and then gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead 1:34 later on another rebound effort. The Lightning’s top-ranked power play extended the advantage to three when Vladislav Namestnikov scored 50 seconds after Gourde’s second of the game.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Brayden Point, Andrej Sustr and Chris Kunitz, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves. The Atlantic Division leaders are 11-2-1 at home. RED WINGS 5, JETS 1 » Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist scored in a dominant first period for Detroit, and the Red Wings snapped a seven-game slide with a victory over Winnipeg.
Fresh off a 10-1 loss at Montreal on Saturday, the Red Wings outshot Winnipeg 16-3 in the opening period and took a 2-0 lead. They put the game away with three more goals in the third. PREDATORS 5, STARS 2 » Juuse Saros made a career-high 43 saves and his Nashville teammates scored four times in the second period as the Predators cooled off Dallas.
Nashville has won three in a row and is 8-1-1 in its last 10 games. The Stars had won seven of eight.
Saros has won both his career starts against Dallas, totaling 73 saves. He has played 28 NHL games over three seasons.
Stars goalie Ben Bishop allowed three goals on 15 shots before Kari Lehtonen replaced him 4:26 into the second period. Lehtonen finished with 15 saves and gave up two goals.
Stephen Johns and Jamie Oleksiak scored for Dallas in the third. BLUES 4, CANADIENS 3 » Brayden Schenn scored three goals and St. Louis ended a three-game skid by beating Montreal.
Scottie Upshall also scored for the Blues, who outshot the Canadiens 30-25 and had the edge in play for most of the game.
Upshall and Schenn scored seven seconds apart early in the second period, one second off the club record.
Shea Weber scored twice and Jordie Benn had a goal for Montreal, which had won five in a row. Canadiens goalie Carey Price lost for the first time in six games since returning from a lower-body injury. five straight and