‘Everybody gets up for it’: Crosby, Pens defeat Flyers
Sidney Crosby’s continued dominance of the Flyers helped the twotime defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins return to first place.
Conor Sheary scored two goals, Crosby had three assists and Pittsburgh surged into the top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-2 win in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
Phil Kessel, Jamie Oleksiak and Evgeni Malkin also scored for the Penguins, who have won three straight. Pittsburgh (39-25-4, 82 points) moved one point ahead of idle Washington and three in front of thirdplace Philadelphia.
Crosby continued to haunt the Flyers, upping his total to 91 points in 62 career games against Philadelphia.
“Everybody gets up for it,” Crosby said of the rivalry. “It brings out the best in everybody.”
Sheary began the game on the fourth line, but played alongside Crosby for parts of the night. Crosby assisted on both goals to help Sheary break out of a slump, as he entered without a goal in 15 games.
“He goes to tough areas and plays bigger than he is,” Crosby said of Sheary, who’s 5-foot-8. Flames 5, Sabres 1: Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski scored three minutes apart in the first period as visiting Calgary ended a four-game skid. Rookie goaltender David Rittich stopped 25 shots before having his first career shutout bid spoiled when Buffalo’s Casey Nelson scored with 18 seconds left. Coyotes 2, Canucks 1: Derek Stepan scored with 58 seconds left in the third period, leading visiting Arizona over Vancouver. Clayton Keller assisted on the winning goal and also scored in the first period for the Coyotes, who are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. Briefly: Hall of Fame player Ron Francis is out as general manager of the Hurricanes after four years but will stay with the team in another front-office position, new owner Tom Dundon said . ... Boston forward David Backes was suspended for three games for delivering a shoulder to the head of Detroit’s Frans Nielsen.