NHL ROUNDUP

Penguins 3, Devils 1

Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel each had a goal and an assist, helping the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 Saturday.

Zach Aston-Reese also scored and Sidney Crosby had two assists for Pittsburgh, which won for the seventh time in nine games. Casey DeSmith made 24 saves as the Penguins a twogame skid.

“Our collective effort out there has been a lot better,” Rust said. “It's not just one or two guys going, it's all five as a unit, all six if you include the goalie. That's key, obviously you can be working hard out there but if guys are not working as a unit, things might not go your way. We have done a really good job working together.”

Kyle Palmieri scored for New Jersey and Scott Wedgewood made 26 saves in his second consecutive start for the Devils, who had won their previous two games.

Pittsburgh erased a one-goal deficit with two goals in a 1:36 span in the second period.

Rust gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal. He converted a quick forehand-backhand deke before scoring at 6:35. Guentzel and Crosby assisted on the game-deciding goal.

“He was a threat from the drop of the puck,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of Crosby, who leads the team in both assists and points. “I thought he had a great game. I thought his line had a great game but he is such a key leader in that aspect of it.”

Aston-Reese evened the score 1 at

4:59 of the second period. The forward corralled a bouncing puck that eluded Devils defenders and slid a shot between the legs of Wedgewood for his sixth goal of the season. Sam Lafferty and Marcus Pettersson assisted.

The Devils failed to score on all four of their power plays, including two in the third period.

“We checked the tape from last game, and we saw what we did wrong when we gave up the goals,” Aston-Reese said. “We just put an emphasis on getting in the shot lane. … We corrected that detail and I thought we were far more aggressive today whenever we got the chance.”

Palmieri opened the scoring at 7:19 of the first period after he crashed the net and buried a rebound. Jesper Bratt delivered a cross-ice feed to set up defenseman Sami Vatanen for a one-time shot. Bratt tied Ty Smith for a team-leading 12th assist on the play and extended his point streak to three games.

“A lot of our shots were kind of one and dones and we had some good chances that we didn't capitalize on,” Palmieri said. “I think the power play sucked a lot of life out of our team and the guys on it. And you can't have that, especially in games where you have four power plays. You have to find a way to generate something, whether that's momentum, goals, shots, good looks, energy, whatever it is. We just didn't do any of that.”

Guentzel extended the Penguins' lead to 3-1 when he redirected Crosby's shot past Wedgewood at 14:25 of the third period.

“I didn't even feel we got off to a good start,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “They owned most the first period, they outworked us, outplayed us, outskated us. We were fortunate to come away with a 1-0 lead.

Penguins forward Jared McCann returned to the lineup after missing the previous six games with an upper-body injury. Brandon Tanev did not dress after warming up.

Sullivan said center Evgeni Malkin will be considered week to week after sustaining an injury against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. The alternate captain had an eight-game scoring streak before the injury.

Devils forward Nathan Bastian did not play after exiting Thursday's win with an injury and is considered week to week. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood did not dress for a second straight game after aggravating an upper-body injury during warmups Thursday.

Late Friday Capitals 2, Rangers 1

Alex Ovechkin shook off the kind of big hit he's used to delivering and scored the kind of timely, clutch goals he has built his career on.

Ovechkin scored two rebound goals in the final seven minutes to give Washington its seventh consecutive victory by coming back to beat the Rangers.

A hit from big Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren that leveled Ovechkin and broke his stick maybe only woke up one of hockey's greatest goal-scorers, who again showed he can put the puck in the net every which way.

“Sometimes you have to get those really gritty ones,” Ovechkin said. “It's still the same whether it's goal from my spot or whatever. It's most important goal, and it'll take it.”

Ovechkin tied it with 6:42 left by poking a loose puck past goaltender Alexandar Georgiev and put the Capitals ahead on a nearly identical play with 3:33 remaining. He has scored in five in a row and has seven goals in the past seven games.

“He has a great determination to get to the front of the net and get the puck in,” said defenseman Justin Schultz, who took the initial shot that led to Ovechkin's first goal. “He was huge for us tonight.”

Washington's longtime captain now leads the team with 14 goals. After moving into sole possession of sixth place on the NHL career goals list earlier in the week, Ovechkin's goals against the Rangers were Nos. 719 and 720, moving him closer to Marcel Dionne in fifth.

“He's a Hall of Famer that's always finding ways to score,” said acting Rangers coach Kris Knoblauch, who ran the bench for a second consecutive game with David Quinn and his staff unavailable because of NHL COVID protocol.

Ovechkin's late-game heroics kept the Capitals winning streak alive after a lackluster first 50 minutes. They had only 12 shots on net before the play that led to his tying goal, and New York was cruising toward a second consecutive shutout victory.

Instead, Vitek Vanecek could celebrate his 13th victory of the season after stopping 32 shots. New York's only goal came on the power play when Artemi Panarin scored his eighth of the season.

“We liked he way we played for the most part,” Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “We had a couple rebounds in front in the last (seven) minutes. It's tough to lose that way.”