Bruins skate past Penguins

BOSTON — Anders Bjork’s pass deflected off a defender’s rear end and Sean Kuraly’s leg to break a second-period tie and help the Boston Bruins win their fourth straight game, 4-1 over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

Patrice Bergeron had two goals and Chris Wagner also scored for Boston. Jaroslav Halak stopped 16 shots for the Bruins’ second victory over Pittsburgh in three days. It was Bergeron’s fourth and fifth goals of the season and the first for Kuraly and Wagner.

Cody Ceci scored his first and Tristan Jarry had 16 saves for the Penguins, who arrived in Boston with a four-game winning streak but have now lost two in a row.

Wagner gave the Bruins the lead early in the first, but Ceci tied it for the Penguins with five minutes left in the period. With about a minute to go in the first, Bjork made a nice move to get past a stickless defender at the point, then flipped the puck toward the net.

It bounced off of Teddy Blueger’s bottom, through another defender’s legs before deflecting Kuraly’s leg into the net.

Bergeron made it 3-1 in the second, getting the rebound after his first attempt hit a skate and sliding the puck over to his backhand then past Jarry. The Bruins captain added another in the power play early in the third.

CAPITALS 6, ISLANDERS 3

WASHINGTON — Zdeno Chara scored for the first time with his new team to cap a five-goal second period, and the Washington Capitals came back to stun the New York Islanders with a 6-3 victory Thursday night.

The Islanders led 3-0 before Washington scored four goals in 5:09. Conor Sheary scored his first two with the Capitals, Garnet Hathaway tied it and John Carlson gave them the lead on the power play.

Then Chara’s slapper from just inside the blue line beat Semyon Varlamov clean, making it five unanswered goals in under 10 minutes. The 43-year-old former Boston Bruins captain was mobbed by teammates at the bench while Islanders players looked shell-shocked by the turn of events.

New York was in command after firstperiod goals by Oliver Wahlstrom, Casey

Cizikas and captain Anders Lee. It appeared as though Stanley Cup-winning coach Barry Trotz’s moves to put Wahlstrom in for tough guy Ross Johnston and shuffle the lines were working after losing to the Capitals on a last-minute goal Tuesday night.

RANGERS 3, SABRES 2

BUFFALO — No. 1 draft pick Alexis Lafreniere scored his first career goal 2:47 into overtime to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.

Artemi Panarin had a goal and set up Ryan Strome’s game-opening goal, and the Rangers snapped an 0-3-1 skid to win for just the second time this season.

Igor Shesterkin stopped 37 shots for his first win since taking over the starting duties following Henrik Lunqvist’s offseason departure.

Sam Reinhart had a goal and assist and Jack Eichel also scored for Buffalo which dropped to 3-3-2. Linus Ullmark finished with 22 saves in a game the Sabres were out-shot 24-9 through two periods and 39-25 overall.

Lafreniere, the rookie playmaking forward out of Quebec, had to wait four months before being selected first in the draft, which was delayed until October because of the coronavirus pandemic. And he had to wait until his seventh career game to register his first point.

The goal came after Eichel turned the puck over in his own zone. Colin Blackwell collected the loose puck and drove up the right side before flipping a pass through the middle to Lafreniere, who one-timed the puck inside the near post.

The Rangers finally won a one-goal game after going 0-3-1 in their past four outings.

New York coach David Quinn maintained optimism in the NHL’s youngest lineup by noting the Rangers’ past four outings were one-goal losses.

“I just like the pace that we’ve played at, how we’ve competed and a lot of times we’ve been the better team,” Quinn said before the game. “That doesn’t mean anything if you’re not winning, but certainly we’re encouraged by the progress of our young players. … I have zero doubt we’re going to get out of this.”