Streaking Hurricanes beat Penguins in overtime
Jaccob Slavin scored 23 seconds into overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Carolina won its seventh straight game and has points in 13 consecutive contests to match the franchise record.
“We’ve been resilient, for sure,” captain Jordan Staal said. “A lot of the guys have stepped up and played some great hockey in big minutes and big roles. We’ve been staying with it and trusting our game.”
In overtime, Brent Burns started a pretty passing sequence with his 800th NHL point and Slavin ended the play when he beat goali Tristan Jarry at the top of the crease. Burns is the 18th defenseman in NHL history with 800 points.
“Hockey is weird,” Burns said. “You keep grinding every day, you enjoy it for a couple minutes and then push for the next thing.”
Martin Necas scored his 14th goal, Staal his 10th and Jalen Chatfield added his first NHL goal for the redhot Hurricanes. Antti Raanta stopped 24 shots for Carolina, which has points in 18 of its last 20 games overall. The Hurricanes, who also have an 11-game road points streak, haven’t lost in regulation since Nov. 23 against Arizona at home.
Sidney Crosby scored his 19th goal, Bryan Rust his ninth and Brock McGinn added a short-handed goal for the Penguins. They lost to the Hurricanes for the second time in five days.
Pittsburgh has lost to the Hurricanes three times in the last three weeks, all by one goal. But the Penguins still have points in 18 of their last 21 games overall.
Kaapo Kakko scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:47 remaining and the Rangers rallied for a win over the crosstown-rival Islanders for their eighth win in nine games.
Barclay Goodrow had a goal and two assists, Julien Gauthier had a goal and an assist, and Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck also scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin stopped 15 shots to improve to 2-7-1 in 10 career games against the Islanders.
Mathew Barzal and Alexander Romanov each had a goal and an assist, and Anders Lee also scored for the Islanders, who lost for the fifth time in six games. Ilya Sorokin finished with 29 saves.
Nick Foligno broke a tie midway through the third period, Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots and NHL-leading Boston rallied at home to beat Winnipeg.
The Bruins improved to 26-4-2 and 18-0-2 at home.
Foligno scored from the left circle off a feed from Charlie Coyle. David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins.
Mark Scheifele and Jansen Harkins scored for Winnipeg and Connor Hellebuyck made 37 saves.
Goals from Calle Jarnkrok and Mitchell Marner ignited Toronto late in the second period at home. The Maple
Leafs then survived a lategame scare to beat Philadelphia.
In their final outing before the Christmas break, the Maple Leafs (21-7-6) increased their victory string at Scotiabank Arena to six games and a perfect 5-0 in December.
Only the Boston Bruins, who were scheduled to play the Winnipeg Jets later Thursday, have a better home record at 17-0-2 to the Maple Leafs’ 13-2-3.
The Flyers (11-16-7) arrived in Toronto with the secondworst record in the Eastern Conference.
But after the Maple Leafs built a 4-1 advantage, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee scored 83 seconds apart to make it a one-goal game with 6:36 left in the third period.
Alex Ovechkin went without a goal for the fourth straight game, while Marcus Johansson scored 2:04 into overtime to give Washington the victory at Ottawa.
Ovechkin is stuck at 800 goals, one short of tying Gordie Howe for second place in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky. The Russian star had two assists.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Sonny Milano also scored for the Capitals. Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in his first start since sustaining an upper-body injury Dec. 3.
Alex DeBrincat and Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa and Cam Talbot stopped 37 shots.