Crosby, Kessel carry Penguins past Lightning, 5-2
PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel each scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Saturday night to end a season-high three-game losing streak.
Tristan Jarry, making his first home start, stopped 33 shots for his first NHL win. He also assisted on the first goal of the game. Pittsburgh hasn’t lost four straight in regulation overall since Dec. 14-19, 2015, the first four games of coach Mike Sullivan’s tenure. The Penguins, playing without injured star forward Evgeni Malkin, also ended a two-game home regulation losing streak.
Kessel also had two assists, and Crosby had one, fueling a Penguins offense that scored three power-play goals and added another shorthanded. Kessel, with seven goals in his last nine games, scored his teambest 11th. Crosby, who has points in five of his last six, added his ninth.
Bryan Rust scored a short-handed goal, his third of the season for the Penguins, who have won 12 of their last 13 home games against Tampa Bay. Pittsburgh scored at least four goals in all 12 wins.
CAPITALS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick to help the Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ovechkin scored two of his three goals in the opening period for the Capitals. Jakub Vrana also scored, and Braden Holtby made 27 saves for his 13th victory of the season. Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev replied in the third period for Toronto. Curtis McElhinney stopped 17 shots. Ovechkin opened the scoring when he skated with the puck through the neutral zone before taking a wrist shot from just outside the left face-off circle and beating McElhinney at 12:03. It was Ovechkin’s 574th goal, which moved him past Mike Bossy for 21st on the career list. The Russian scored his second goal with 47 seconds left in the period on a power play. The goal was Ovechkin’s 217th of his career with the man advantage, which moved him into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for the most among active NHL players. BLACKHAWKS 4, PANTHERS 1: Jonathan Toews probably didn’t expect much when he took a backhanded, tennislike swing at the puck. Especially not with the way he and his line have been scoring of late. Toews had just one goal in his last eight games, and that goal was an empty netter. His wingers, Brandon Saad and Richard Panik, combined for one goal in the Hawks’ last 14 games.
But somehow, Toews desperate whack of the puck in the second period Saturday bounced off the ice like a ground ball taking a bad hop in an infield and made it past Panthers goaltender Robert Luongo. It was one of two goals Toews and his line scored as the Hawks defeated the Panthers, 4-1, at BB&T Center.
DEVILS 4, RED WINGS 3, OT: in front of the Detroit net. He beat Jimmy Howard for the winner, his 11th goal of the season. David Booth scored twice for the Red Wings and Anthony Mantha started Detroit’s third-period rally with his 11th goal of the season. Brian Boyle and Taylor Hall scored in the first period for New Jersey, and Nico Hischier added a goal in the third. New Jersey moved past Columbus into first place in the Metropolitan Division.
CANADIENS 3, SABRES 0: Carey Price made 36 saves in his return from a lowerbody injury and Montreal beat Buffalo to snap a fivegame losing streak. Price missed 10 games with the injury. The shutout was his 40th in the NHL.
Jeff Petry, Alex Galchenyuk and Paul Bryon scored. ISLANDERS 2, SENATORS 1: Anders Lee and Jordan Eberle scored, Nick Leddy had two assists and New York handed Ottawa its sixth loss in a row. Jaroslav Halak made 31 saves for the Islanders. They have won three straight and six of seven.
Matt Duchene scored his first goal in his eighth game with Ottawa, and Craig Anderson made 22 saves. BLUES 6, WILD 3: Jaden Schwartz scored twice and Kyle Brodziak added a shorthanded goal in the St. Louis Blues’ victory over the Minnesota Wild. Paul Stastny, Dmitrij Jaskin and Sammy Blais also scored for the Blues, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Jake Allen made 22 saves to help St. Louis win for the third time in four games and improve its points total to an NHL-best 35 at 17-6-1. GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, COYOTES 2: Tomas Nosek, William Karlsson and Erik Haula scored in a 1:42 span of the second period and the Las Vegas Golden Knights went on to win their fifth straight, 4-2 over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night. Jonathan Marchessault had an empty-net goal right before the buzzer and an earlier pair of assists for the Knights. They improved to 3-0 against Arizona and solidified their spot in first place in the Pacific Division in their inaugural season. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brendan Perlini scored in a third-period Coyotes comeback. Perlini’s spectacular goal through traffic and past goalie Malcolm Subban cut the lead to 3-2 with 9:25 remaining.