PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby scored his NHL-leading 34th goal, Matt Murray made 35 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 at blustery Heinz Field Saturday night.
Matt Cullen, Nick Bonino and Chad Ruhwedel also scored for Pittsburgh, which thrilled the capacity crowd of 67,318 at the home of the NFL’s Steelers by capitalizing on some shaky goaltending by Michal Neuvirth. Jake Guentzel picked up two assists, and the Penguins drew within five points of Metropolitan Division-leading Washington.
Jakub Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for Philadelphia, but Neuvirth stopped just 25 of 29 shots as the Flyers dropped to 0-3 in outdoor games.
Blue Jackets 7, Islanders 0: Josh Anderson and Nick Foligno each scored twice, sending Columbus to a romp over New York.
The high-energy Blue Jackets didn’t show any rust in their first game back following their five-day break, unlike many teams that have struggled coming out of the bye week this season. Columbus scored three times in the first period, chasing Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss.
Columbus has a comfortable hold on the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, while the Islanders are in a tight race for the final playoff berth.
Kings 4, Ducks 1: Jonathan Quick made 32 saves in his return from a groin injury and Tyler Toffoli scored two of Los Angeles’ four third-period goals.
Quick missed 59 games after injuring the groin in the first period of the season opener Oct. 12 against San Jose, and he took advantage of a timely end to Los Angeles’ recent offensive power outage.
Rangers 4, Devils 3, OT: Mika Zibanejad scored 1:16 into overtime and New York rallied to beat New Jersey.
Chris Kreider, Oscar Lindberg and Adam Clendening also scored for the Rangers. Antti Raanta had 36 saves, including a stop on a breakaway by Kyle Palmieri just before Zibanejad scored for the first time in 16 games.
Zibanejad took a long pass from Brady Skjei, faked a shot and slid the puck between the goaltender’s legs.
Palmieri scored twice and Adam Henrique once for the Devils.
Predators 5, Capitals 2: Filip Forsberg scored the winning goal and had two assists as Nashville scored three in the second period in beating Washington.
Forsberg missed becoming the first in NHL history with a hat trick in three consecutive games. He still notched his seventh goal in three games as Nashville won its second straight and third in four games.
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 2, OT: Andrew Shaw scored 1:06 into overtime and Montreal beat Toronto for the 14th consecutive time.
Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk had the other goals for the Canadiens, who increased their Atlantic Division lead to four points over Ottawa and five on Toronto. They are 3-7-1 in the last 11 games and 2-2-0 under new coach Claude Julien.
The 19-year-old Matthews scored twice to reach 30 goals in his rookie season, and Frederik Andersen was sharp with 25 saves for the Maple Leafs.
Sharks 4, Canucks 1: Patrick Marleau scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period and Martin Jones made 35 saves, helping San Jose beat undermanned Vancouver.
Tomas Hertl, Mikkel Boedker and Logan Couture had the other goals for the Sharks. Chris Tierney added two assists.
Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver, which got 22 stops from Ryan Miller.
Avalanche 5, Sabres 3: Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and an assist, and Jeremy Smith made 34 saves in his first NHL win as lowly Colorado beat Buffalo for its second victory in 10 games. — AP
