Malkin, Pens edge Rangers
Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang each had two goals, and the Penguins climbed into playoff position with a 6-5 win against the New York Rangers yesterday in Pittsburgh.
Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Brian Dumoulin also scored for the Penguins (31-21-7), who leapfrogged Carolina for the second Eastern Conference wild card.
Mats Zuccarello had two goals, and Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad scored in the game’s final 5:46 for the Rangers, who couldn’t complete a second rally after erasing a 3-1 deficit to tie it late in the second period.
The Rangers were not able to take the lead during a four-minute power play that spanned the second intermission. Just 49 seconds after that penalty expired, Letang took a feed from Sidney Crosby and beat goalie Alexandar Georgiev. Malkin then scored twice in a span of 2:31 to give him four goals in two games since serving a onegame suspension for a stick-swinging incident.
Crosby had three assists to give him 11 points in his past five games, helping to atone for the high-sticking doubleminor that gave the Rangers a chance to take the lead.
Blues 4, Wild 0 — In St. Paul, Minn., Jordan Binnington made 31 saves and St. Louis posted its third straight shutout, beating Minnesota for its 10th straight win.
Binnington made 21 saves to blank Arizona on Thursday, and Jake Allen stopped 32 shots in a 3-0 win against Colorado on Saturday. St. Louis hasn’t allowed a goal in 187:16, since late in a rout of New Jersey on Tuesday.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and two assists and Ryan O’Reilly, Vince Dunn and Brayden Schenn also scored to help St. Louis match the best winning streak in franchise history, completed in January 2002.
Panthers 6, Canadiens 3 — Aleksander Barkov got his second career hat trick and host Florida routed Montreal.
Barkov also had an assist to give him his third four-point game of his career.
Riley Sheahan, Frank Vatrano and Denis Malgin also scored for the Panthers, and Keith Yandle had two assists. James Reimer stopped 28 shots.
Max Domi scored twice for the Canadiens.
Devils 4, Sabres 1 — Kyle Palmieri had a goal and two assists, and Cory Schneider made 34 saves to lead New Jersey past Buffalo in Newark, N.J.
Miles Wood, Jesper Bratt and Joey Anderson also scored as the Devils won consecutive games for the second time since the start of the year.
Sam Reinhart scored for the Sabres, whose wild card playoff chances took a hit with a second loss in three days. Carter Hutton made 20 saves as Buffalo fell six points behind Pittsburgh in the race for the final wild-card spot.
Flyers 3, Red Wings 1 — Ivan Provorov scored a tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Oskar Lindblom had two goals, lifting surging Philadelphia past host Detroit.
The Flyers have won 12 of their past 14 games, moving into contention for a wild card in the Eastern Conference playoffs or perhaps for one of the three guaranteed postseason spots available in the Metropolitan Division.
Lindblom scored early in the game and had an emptynet goal with 1:26 left. Carter Hart finished with 37 saves.
Darren Helm tied the game early in the second period and on a night the Red Wings missed opportunities.