PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kris Letang scored his second goal of the game with 54 seconds left in overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 7-6 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Letang, who hadn’t played since Dec. 28 due to a lower-body injury, also added two assists for Pittsburgh. His power-play blast gave the Penguins just their fourth overtime victory of the season.
Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Danton Heinen each had a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh. Rickard Rakell and Drew O’Connor also scored for the Penguins. Casey DeSmith stopped 33 shots, including both that he faced in overtime, to win for just the third time in his last 10 starts.
Carter Verhaeghe scored twice for Florida, including a tying goal with 2:32 left in regulation. Aaron Ekblad had a goal and two assists. Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist. Colin White’s sixth goal of the season 4:10 into the third gave the Panthers the lead but Florida couldn’t hold it. Alex Lyon made 42 saves.
BRUINS 4, CANADIENS 2
MONTREAL (AP) — Patrice Bergeron broke a tie with 2:55 left and the NHL-leading Boston Bruins earned their sixth straight victory.
Taylor Hall and David Krejci also scored for Boston in the first game of the season between the rivals. David Pastrnak had an empty-netter in the final minute and added three assists.
Jeremy Swayman made 19 saves to help the Bruins improve to 38-5-4.
Kirby Dach scored twice for Montreal, and Samuel Montembeault made 25 saves. The Canadiens dropped to 20-25-3.
KINGS 4, FLYERS 3, OT
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kevin Fiala scored 1:09 into overtime to clinch the win for Los Angeles.
Anze Kopitar scored two goals and Samuel Fagemo added one for the Kings.
James van Riemsdyk, Wade Allison and Rasmus Ristolainen scored for the Flyers.
Los Angeles dominated the third period but couldn’t find the tiebreaking goal until the extra session. Fiala took the puck the length of the ice for his 17th goal and team-leading 50th point.
Pheonix Copley made 28 saves for the Kings. Hart stopped 34 shots.
RED WINGS 3, SHARKS 2, OT
DETROIT (AP) — Andrew Copp scored 25 seconds into overtime to give Detroit the win over San Jose.
Copp banged in a rebound near the goal crease after goalie James Reimer stopped Michael Rasmussen’s shot.
Rasmussen and Adam Erne scored in regulation, with Dylan Larkin reaching 400 NHL points with an assist on Erne’s goal. Ville Husso made 26 saves.
Timo Meier scored his fifth goal in seven games for San Jose. Logan Couture also scored, Erik Karlsson assisted on both goals, and Reimer stopped 29 shots.
LIGHTNING 4, WILD 2
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:38 remaining and Tampa Bay won its 10th consecutive home game.
Nikita Kucherov scored into an empty net with 16.4 seconds left, handing Minnesota its third straight loss.
Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry scored twice in the second period on deflections of shots by Ross Colton. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 35 saves and earned his 250th NHL win, all with the Lightning.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored shorthanded and assisted on Kirill Kaprizov’s power-play goal for Minnesota. Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves.
DEVILS 3, GOLDEN KNIGHT 2, OT
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Dougie Hamilton scored late to tie the game and netted a power-play goal with 1:06 left in overtime to lead New Jersey over Vegas.
Ondrej Palat also scored and Vitek Vanecek made 28 saves as the Devils improved to 7-0-1 in their last eight games. Vanecek has won a career-best eight games in a row, becoming New Jersey’s first goalie to do that since Martin Brodeur in 2007-08.
Ben Hutton and William Karlsson scored for the Golden Knights, who are 2-5-1 in their last eight games. Rookie All-Star Logan Thompson had 35 saves for Vegas.
PREDATORS 2, JETS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tanner Jeannot scored early in the third period and Juuse Saros made 32 saves and Nashville earned its fourth win in five games.
Cody Glass had the Predator's other goal.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored and Connor Hellebuyck made 39 saves for Winnipeg, which concluded a five-game road trip 2-3-0.
SABRES 5, BLUES 3
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner each had a goal and two assists as Buffalo snapped a nine-game losing streak in St. Louis dating to Jan. 21, 2012.
Thompson extended his point streak to five games, his third streak of five or more games this season. Skinner also has a five-game point streak, his second such stretch this season.
Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist, and Owen Power and Dylan Cozens also scored for the Sabres.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves for Buffalo, which improved to 2-6-1 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
Ivan Barbashev, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou scored for the Blues, who finished 3-4 on their longest homestand of the season. Jordan Binnington made 26 saves.
DUCKS 5, COYOTES 2
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Cam Fowler had two goals and an assist, Anthony Stolarz stopped 37 shots and Anaheim's strong start held off Arizona.
The Ducks jumped on the Coyotes early to build a 4-0 lead. Troy Terry had a goal and two assists for Anaheim, with Frank Vatrano adding a goal and an assist.
After Fowler’s second goal, Arizona cut Anaheim’s lead in half on goals by Barrett Hayton and Nick Schmaltz.
Adam Henrique ended the Coyotes’ hopes of completing the comeback on an empty-net goal with 3 1/2 minutes left.
Connor Ingram had 39 saves for Arizona.
AVALANCHE 3, CAPITALS 2
DENVER (AP) — Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Cogliano and Alex Newhook scored against former teammate Darcy Kuemper and a surging Colorado team gave coach Jared Bednar his franchise-record 266th victory.
Logan O’Connor added two assists, Nathan MacKinnon had an assist for his 700th point and Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves in the Avs’ season-best sixth straight victory. They moved into third place in the Central Division, one point ahead of Minnesota.
Bednar, coaching his 500th game for Colorado, improved to 266-185-49 and passed former Quebec Nordiques boss Michel Bergeron for the most coaching victories in franchise history.
Alex Ovechkin returned from an injury to score his 31st goal for Washington. Conor Sheary also scored and Kuemper stopped 23 shots in his first game in Denver since helping the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in June.
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