Defenseman Simon Despres scored 2 minutes, 21 seconds into overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied late and beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Friday night.
Chris Kunitz tied the game with a power-play goal with 3 minutes, 11 seconds left in regulation, spoiling a magnificent performance by New Jersey’s Cory Schneider, who made 41 saves.
The winning goal came after Schneider made a close-in stop on Brandon Sutton. The Penguins kept the puck in the zone, and Despres’ shot from inside the blue line beat a screened Schneider.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 13 saves for the Penguins, who fell behind 1-0 when Devils forward Steve Bernier scored on a wraparound 6 minutes, 8 seconds into the third period.
New Jersey failed to tie their season-best, three-game winning streak. Pittsburgh won for the second time in seven games (2-3-2).
BLUES 3, HURRICANES 2, SO
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Kevin Shattenkirk scored in a shootout as St Louis topped Carolina for their fourth straight win.
Ryan Reaves and David Backes scored in regulation for the Blues, while Jake Allen made 26 saves before stopping all three Carolina shooters in the tiebreaker.
Defensemen Justin Faulk and Ryan Murphy scored for Carolina, who had their three-game winning streak snapped, but the Hurricanes had earned points in nine of 11 games last month.
Anton Khudobin made one save, but allowed two goals before he was pulled 2 minutes, 35 seconds in and replaced by Cam Ward, who stopped all 29 shots he faced.
Shattenkirk beat Ward with a wrist shot in the second round of the shootout, while Allen stopped Eric Staal with his pads to end it.
The Blues, 9-0-1 in their past 10 games, beat Carolina in a shootout for the second time this season.
AVALANCHE 3, PREDATORS 0
In Denver, Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves for his fourth shutout of the season as Colorado beat Nashville.
Jarome Iginla, Maxime Talbot and Gabriel Landeskog had goals for the Avalanche, who earned an important win in their pursuit of a playoff berth.
Colorado are trying to stay in the thick of the race after a slow start to the season. The Avalanche are two points behind Calgary for the second wild-card position in the Western Conference, but they have played one more game than the Flames.
Colorado improved to 8-3-3 in their past 14 games and have moved into fifth place in the Central Division. The Avalanche earned three of a possible four points against the division-leading Predators.
Nashville’s Marek Mazanec made 25 saves in his first start of the season.
BLACKHAWKS 4, DUCKS 1
Patrick Kane had two goals and an assist, while Patrick Sharp assisted on every Chicago goal in their away victory over Anaheim.
Captain Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith also scored for the Blackhawks, who beat the NHL-leading Ducks for the third straight time at the Honda Center. Corey Crawford made 21 saves as Chicago controlled the meeting of the Western Conference powers, taking a three-goal lead in the second period.
Rickard Rakell scored with 9 minutes, 54 seconds to play, while Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots for the Ducks, who have back-to-back losses in two days after a six-game winning streak.
Shortly before Kane scored his first goal, Keith scored on what appeared to be goaltender interference by Toews during a dominant middle period by Chicago.
CANUCKS 5, SABRES 2
Ryan Miller made 22 saves in his first game against his former team as Vancouver, playing at home, sent Buffalo to their 14th straight loss in regulation time.
Chris Higgins had a goal and an assist, and Bo Horvat, Yannick Weber, Nick Bonino and Radim Vrbata also scored for the Canucks, who snapped a two-game skid. Christopher Tanev added two assists.
Chris Stewart had both goals for the Sabres (14-33-3).
Matt Hackett stopped 33 shots in his first start of the season for the NHL-worst Sabres, who have not won on the road since late November last year.
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