Jarkko Ruutu scored two goals on Friday night to lead the surging Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Rob Scuderi, Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh, which pulled within five points of the Atlantic Division-leading Devils with a game in hand. The Penguins have won five in a row. More impressively, they have picked up at least one point in 15 straight games, winning 13 of them.
Brian Rafalski, Patrik Elias, Zach Parise and Travis Zajac scored for the Devils, who had won 10 of their previous 14.
PHOTO: AP
The Penguins drained the drama from the showdown by jumping out a 3-0 lead in the first period on goals by Ruutu, Scuderi and Staal.
Blues 1, Predators 0
At St. Louis, Bill Guerin scored late in the second period, Manny Legace stopped 19 shots for his fifth shutout this season and St. Louis ended a 14-game losing streak against Nashville.
It was Nashville's first game since acquiring center Peter Forsberg from Philadelphia in a trade on Thursday night. The former MVP did not play against the Blues and planned to make his debut with the Predators yesterday at home against the Minnesota Wild.
Blue Jackets 3, Sharks 0
At Columbus, Ohio, Gilbert Brule, Fredrik Modin and Sergei Fedorov each had a goal and an assist and Fredrik Norrena stopped 29 shots for his third shutout of the season, lifting Columbus over San Jose.
The Sharks were shut out for the second game in a row, running their scoreless streak to 148 minutes, 30 seconds.
Columbus' three goal-scorers ended recent difficulties finding the net. Brule picked up his first goal in 16 games, Modin notched just his fifth in his last 27 games and Fedorov scored after not having a goal in his last 11 games.
The Blue Jackets had lost two in a row and five of the last six.
Canucks 2, Blackhawks 1, SO
At Chicago, Trevor Linden and Brendan Morrison scored in the shootout, and Roberto Luongo made 34 saves to lead Vancouver to its third straight win and the top spot in the Northwest Division.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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