Malkin’s hat trick powers Penguins to romp over Detroit
Evgeni Malkin had his 15th career hat trick and added an assist as the Pittsburgh Penguins drilled the reeling Detroit Red Wings 11-2 on Sunday night.
Sidney Crosby, Kasperi Kapanen, Jeff Carter, Teddy Blueger, Danton Heinen, Brian Boyle and recently acquired Rickard Rakell also scored for the Penguins, who needed less than 30 minutes to take a 6-0 lead on their way to their first 11goal game in nearly 30 years. Tristan Jarry made 33 saves to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts.
Pittsburgh bounced back from a listless loss to the
New York Rangers on Friday by overwhelming the Red Wings, showcasing their firepower in the process by putting up the franchise’s first 11-goal game since an 11-5 win over Philadelphia on Nov. 16, 1993.
The Penguins also stayed one point ahead of the Rangers for second place in the tight Metropolitan Division. New York visits PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night.
Dylan Larkin scored his 28th goal for Detroit and Jakub Vrana added his sixth, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Red Wings lost for the ninth time in 11 games. Alex Nedeljkovic absorbed most of Pittsburgh’s early onslaught, giving up four goals before being replaced by Calvin Pickard after Carter’s
short-handed goal 3:18 into the second made it 4-0. LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 1 » Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves and Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn scored second-period goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday.
Ross Colton and Mikhail Sergachev added third-period goals for the Lightning, (41-18-6), who have won two straight after a three-game losing streak.
Iyla Sorokin made 18 saves on 20 shots in the first two periods and Semyon Varlamov stopped 12 shots in the third for the Islanders, whose lone goal was scored by Brock Nelson. New York (28-27-9) has dropped two straight.
Nelson gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead late in the first period with his career-high 31st goal. The score came with 1:46 left in the period and was the culmination of a sequence which began when Adam Pelech flipped a lob pass out of New York’s defensive zone to Nelson, who raced down the right side before beating Vasilevskiy high to the glove side.
The Lightning struck back 1:10 into the second on Hedman’s power-play goal to tie the game. Tampa Bay’s cornerstone defenseman accepted a cross-ice pass from Brayden Point, then bolted past Andy Greene before finishing with his 18th of the season.
Killorn gave Tampa Bay the lead for good 8:37 later, finishing an odd-man rush with his 20th of the season. RANGERS 4, SABRES 4 » K’Andre Miller scored 2:02 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 Sunday.
Frank Vatrano had two goals, Alexis Lafrenière had a goal and an assist and Artemi Panarin also scored to help the Rangers win for the fifth time in their last six at home. New York is 9-2-1 in its last 12 at Madison Square Garden. Andrew Copp had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev had 13 saves to improve to 10-9-2 on the season.
Rasmus Asplund, Will Butcher, Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner scored for Buffalo, which is 3-0-2 in its last five. Craig Anderson finished with 26 saves.
In the extra period, Copp stole the puck at center ice, brought it up and passed to Lafrenière on the right side. Lafrenière passed it back across to a Miller, who beat Anderson inside the left post for his sixth of the season. Copp, acquired from Winnipeg last Monday, has five points in three games with the Rangers.
New York has won its last five against Buffalo and is 9-0-1 in the last 10 meetings. In 20 matchups dating back to Feb. 2, 2017, the Rangers are 16-3-1 against the Sabres. The Rangers also completed a three-game sweep of the season series against the Sabres and denied Buffalo its first three-game road winning streak since November 2018.