Crosby helps Penguins snap 4-game skid
Sidney Crosby scored the second of his two goals at 2:21 of overtime for his 1,400th career point, helping the host Pittsburgh Penguins snap a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday.
Crosby added an assist in his 1,100th game, becoming the seventh-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,400 points. It also was Crosby’s 77th gamewinning goal, one behind Evgeni Malkin and Jaromir Jagr for most in team history.
On his latest winner, Crosby got a pass from Rikard Rakell and tipped it behind goalie David Rittich near the post.
Jason Zucker also scored and Rakell assisted on all three goals for the Penguins. Casey DeSmith stopped 33 shots to help Pittsburgh regain a fourpoint advantage over Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Matt Duchene and Nick Cousins scored for Nashville.
Hurricanes 5, Ducks 2: Jordan Staal capped his fourth career hat trick — and first in 10 years — with an empty-net goal and host Carolina beat Anaheim.
Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Martinook also scored for the Metropolitan Divisionleading Hurricanes. Svechnikov also had an assist and Nino Neiderreiter assisted on two goals. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for Carolina. Capitals 3, Bruins 2: Lars Eller made the best of his move back to center, scoring the go-ahead goal and assisting on another score to help host Washington beat Boston for its third straight victory.
Eller was playing center — his natural position — only because Nicklas Backstrom was scratched for what the team called “body maintenance.”
Eller assisted on Tom Wilson’s 23rd goal of the season, a career high for the big wing who has scored four times in six games and reached 50 points for the first time. Lightning 5, Sabres 0: Brian Elliott made 28 saves, Corey Perry and Ondrej Palat had goals 17 seconds apart in the first period and Tampa Bay beat visiting Buffalo.
Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov and Ross Colton also scored to help the Lightning move past Boston into third place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay had lost four straight (0-2-2) and avoided its first five-game losing streak since Mar. 2-10, 2014.
Wild 6, Kings 3: Matt Boldy and Jared Spurgeon each had a goal and an assist, helping host Minnesota overcome a three-goal deficit to beat Los Angeles.
Kirill Kaprizov tied a franchise record with his 42nd goal, and Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno and Nick Bjugstad also scored as Minnesota ended a two-game slide and improved to 10-1-2 in its past 13 games.
Stars 6, Blackhawks 4: Jason Robertson scored his teamleading 33rd and 34th goals about three minutes apart, and visiting Dallas strengthened its hold on a wild-card spot with a win over Chicago.
Robertson’s first goal snapped a 3-all tie with nine minutes left in the second. He then beat Chicago goalie Kevin Lankinen with a perfect screened shot, allowing Dallas to hand Chicago its seventh straight defeat (0-5-2).