Pittsburgh overcame the late withdrawal of Evgeni Malkin to cruise past high-flying San Jose 5-1 on Thursday, scoring four goals in the third period.
The Penguins opened a yawning 11-point lead atop the Metropolitan Division, while the Sharks missed a chance to build their lead atop the Central Division.
Elsewhere, Marco Scandella found a good time to score his first goal of the season, with his late strike lifting Minnesota over Chicago. Montreal made it nine straight wins to overtake Boston as Atlantic Division leader, and Toronto ended a five-game skid by beating Dallas in overtime.
Photo: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY
Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz scored twice during the four-goal second period, while Pascal Dupuis, Jayson Megna and Kris Letang also netted for the Penguins, who snapped San Jose’s six-game winning streak.
Sidney Crosby had three assists in his 500th career game to push his point total to an National Hockey League (NHL)-leading 42, while Malkin pulled out after sustaining a lower-body injury during the morning skate.
Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks, who lost in regulation for only the fourth time this season.
Photo: AFP
Minnesota’s Marco Scandella netted a slap shot with 1 minute, 48 seconds left to give the Wild a 4-3 win over Chicago.
Jonas Brodin scored on a power play with 5:39 remaining to tie the game for the Wild, who raised their home record to 12-3-2 and handed the Blackhawks their first loss in their past seven road games.
Montreal’s Max Pacioretty scored his ninth goal in nine games to help the Canadiens edge Boston 2-1.
Tomas Plekanec also scored for Montreal, who jumped a point ahead of Boston atop the Atlantic Division, but the Bruins have two games in hand.
Gregory Campbell scored for Boston, who had defenseman Johnny Boychuk stretchered off in the first period after a hit by Pacioretty, who got two minutes for boarding. After the game, coach Claude Julien said Boychuk was released from hospital and would return to Boston with the team.
Toronto’s Trevor Smith scored in overtime to help the Maple Leafs beat Dallas 3-2, ending a five-game skid.
The Leafs won despite being outshot for the 10th consecutive game, this time 50-24.
Nazem Kadri scored twice for Toronto in his return after missing a game to attend his grandfather’s funeral.
Shawn Horcoff scored for the Stars on a power play to tie it 2-2.
St Louis’ Derek Roy and David Backes scored power-play goals in the second period to power the Blues to a 5-1 win over struggling New York.
The Islanders have lost eight straight overall and eight in a row on the road.
Jay Bouwmeester, Magnus Paajarvi and Brenden Morrow also scored for the Blues, who improved to 12-1-2 at home and tied Boston for the most home wins in the NHL.
Andrew MacDonald scored for the Islanders.
Tampa Bay’s Martin St Louis scored twice as the Lightning beat Ottawa 3-1.
Carolina’s Jeff Skinner had a hat-trick to lead the Hurricanes to a 5-2 victory over Nashville.
Florida’s Dylan Olsen scored his first NHL goal to help the Panthers beat Winnipeg 5-2.
Edmonton’s Taylor Hall had a hat-trick and an assist to help the Oilers rebound from a lopsided defeat with a surprising 8-2 rout of Colorado.
New York’s Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves to help the Rangers beat Buffalo 3-1.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
RSS