Sidney Crosby scored two goals in the last five minutes to help the Penguins beat the injury-riddled Blackhawks 4-1 on Sunday night.
“This was one of our most physical games of the year,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “We saw it from the beginning of the game until the end.”
The biggest hit came in the second period, when — already playing without Patrick Kane — the Blackhawks lost captain Jonathan Toews to an upper-body injury when he was drilled by Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik. Toews was holding his left arm as he sat on the bench before he left the arena.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said he does not think the injury is serious, but that there would “a better assessment tomorrow.”
James Neal and Lee Stempniak also scored for the Penguins, who won their second straight overall to snap a three-game home losing streak. Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves in his 36th win of the season.
Orpik’s hit on Toews occurred with six minutes, 30 seconds left in the middle period as the two were going for a loose puck.
“It was a big hit,” Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp said. “You could tell he was trying to hit him hard. He knew who he was hitting. It’s tough when you see your captain get hit like that.”
In Philadelphia, Patrice Bergeron scored in the second period and also tallied in the shootout to lead the Bruins in a 4-3 win over the Flyers that set a club record as Boston’s ninth straight single-season road win.
Reilly Smith, Boston’s fifth shooter, clinched the win in the tiebreaker. The Bruins went 15-1-1 last month.
Vincent Lecavalier scored twice for the Flyers, including the tying goal with 25 seconds left in regulation, with his first goal marking the 400th of his career.
In Edmonton, backup Cam Talbot stopped 26 shots for his third career shutout, while Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello scored two goals apiece to lead New York a 5-0 win over the Oilers — the Rangers’ sixth win in seven games.
Elsewhere in the NHL, the Red Wings moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a 3-2 win over the Lightning, while Craig Smith scored the only goal in the shootout as Nashville edged Washington 4-3 and the Senators triumphed 6-3 over the Flames.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
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