PITTSBURGH (AP) — Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust each scored a power-play goal as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Tuesday night to stop their seven-game winning streak.
It was the first meeting between the division rivals since their first-round playoff series last season. New York rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Pittsburgh, winning Game 7 at home in overtime.
Sidney Crosby scored his 18th goal and had an assist for the surging Penguins, who have won eight of nine. Pittsburgh is 15-3-2 in its last 20 games overall.
Tristan Jarry made 26 saves and extended his winning streak to seven. He also has a career-best 13-game point streak, tied for fourth-longest in team history.
Chris Kreider scored twice for the Rangers, who lost for the third time in 11 games. Igor Shesterkin stopped 21 shots but lost on the road in regulation for the first time this season.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, LIGHTNING 1
TORONTO (AP) — Auston Matthews scored a power-play goal early in the second period and Toronto snapped Tampa Bay's five-game winning streak.
Michael Bunting, Pierre Engvall and William Nylander also scored for the Maple Leafs. Matt Murray made 18 saves. Engvall and Nylander, who added assists, scored into an empty net late.
Vladislav Namestnikov scored for the Lightning, who lost in regulation for just the fourth time in their last 17 games (13-4-0). Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 shots.
In last season's first-round playoff series, Toronto led the Lightning 3-2 before Tampa Bay won Game 6 in double overtime at home and eventually took the series.
HURRICANES 4, DEVILS 1
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored 20 seconds into the game and rookie goalie Pyotr Kochetkov stopped the first 35 shots he faced as Carolina beat New Jersey.
Jordan Staal, Teuvo Teravainen and Stefan Noesen also scored for the Hurricanes, who have a 12-game point streak and moved into first place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of the skidding Devils. Jaccob Slavin had two assists.
Kochetkov made 37 saves overall, including a stop on Jesper Bratt’s breakaway late in the second period.
The Devils dropped their sixth straight. New Jersey lost only four times through the end of November — a span of 23 games.
Jack Hughes scored with 4:36 remaining as the Devils avoided their first shutout of the season. Vitek Vanecek stopped 10 of 13 shots in two periods before being pulled in favor of Mackenzie Blackwood.
FLYERS 5, BLUE JACKETS 3
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett both scored twice, Carter Hart made 30 saves and Philadelphia topped Columbus in a game between teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
Morgan Frost also scored for the Flyers, and Cam York had two assists.
Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson and Andrew Peeke scored for the Blue Jackets, who have lost five straight and eight of 10. Daniil Tarasov stopped 34 shots in his fifth consecutive defeat.
JETS 5, SENATORS 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Kyle Connor scored twice and added an assist as Winnipeg downed Ottawa.
Connor and defenseman Josh Morrissey, who had a goal and an assist, both extended their point streaks to 10 games. Morrissey also reached a career high for points with 38 this season.
Kevin Stenlund and Sam Gagner had the other goals for the injury-riddled Jets. David Rittich made 35 saves. It was the first time this season the netminder started consecutive games. Connor Hellebuyck was out because of a non-COVID-19 illness.
Drake Batherson scored a power-play goal for the Senators, and Cam Talbot stopped 19 shots.
KRAKEN 5, BLUES 2
SEATTLE (AP) — Ryan Donato scored in his fourth straight game and Seattle halted St. Louis’ winning streak at five.
Carson Soucy, Daniel Sprong and Jared McCann scored in the second period for the Kraken. Brandon Tanev added an empty-net goal with 4:13 left as Seattle won consecutive games for the first time in nearly three weeks. Martin Jones made 22 saves to win for the fourth time in his last five starts.
Colton Parayko and Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Blues, who played without leading scorer Jordan Kyrou (upper-body injury). Thomas Greiss made 28 saves.
FLAMES 7, SHARKS 3
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Tyler Toffoli and Dillon Dube both scored in the first 30 seconds, Nazem Kadri got the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and Calgary beat San Jose.
Toffoli finished with two goals and an assist, and Kadri also scored twice. Trevor Lewis and Milan Lucic had the other goals for the Flames, who scored four unanswered in the final 9:56 after the game was tied at 3.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Elias Lindholm each had three assists. Lucic, who assisted on Kadri’s tiebreaking goal, has scored his first two goals of the season in the past two games.
Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves for back-to-back wins over the Sharks.
Toffoli scored 15 seconds in and Dube followed 15 seconds later, tying them for the fifth-fastest two goals to start a game in NHL history.
Sharks forward Nico Sturm scored on a tap-in for his ninth of the season. Timo Meier and Alexander Barabanov also scored for San Jose. James Reimer made 32 saves.
KINGS 4, DUCKS 1
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alex Iafallo, Viktor Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala scored as Los Angeles beat Anaheim, extending its winning streak to three games.
The Kings have won three straight for the second time this season. Pheonix Copley made 24 saves to join teammate Jonathan Quick in winning three consecutive starts.
Drew Doughty had a power-play goal, and Adrian Kempe had two assists for the Kings.
Frank Vatrano scored on the power play and Lukas Dostal allowed four goals on 41 shots as the Ducks failed in their bid to get their first three-game winning streak of the season.
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The Associated Press
