Sidney Crosby played heroes on the power play in overtime, helping the Pittsburgh Penguins to an unlikely 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
Trailing 4-0 following 22 minutes, the Penguins rolled up their sleeves once morest the NHL’s worst team overall.
It was only the third comeback of four goals in the Bettman circuit this season, following those of Vancouver (December 5) and Detroit (December 28).
Jason Zucker netted a brace, while Evgeni Malkin provided three assists, helping give the Pens two valuable points in the playoff chase.
The Columbus Blue Jackets stormed PPG Paints Arena scoring three goals in the first half of the first period.
Beaten three times in the first ten minutes of play, Tristan Jarry completed the first period, before yielding the cage to Casey DeSmith following he conceded the Jackets’ fourth goal, 2:37 into the middle period.
Emil Bemstrom, Lane Pederson, Patrik Laine and Liam Foudy hit the mark at Jarry’s expense.
Midway through the game, Zucker gave life for Pittsburgh, scoring his 20th goal of the campaign.
Elvis Merzlikins started the game in net for Columbus (21-37-6). He stopped all seven shots he faced but had to make way for Michael Hutchinson, as the Latvian goalkeeper battled a virus.
Hutchinson did what he might in front of a straight line bombardment as he faced 40 shots in 42 minutes on the job.
On Zucker’s first goal, Alex Nylander collected his first point as a member of the Penguins, and his first in the NHL since March 2020.
Crosby offered the victory to his club by firing a one-timer when fed by his always accomplice, Malkin. It was his 28th goal of the campaign.
Jake Guentzel also moved the ropes, as did Danton Heinen – his goal tied it 4-4 at 3:59 of the final period – to help the Pittsburgh fans go home with a smile.
Auston Matthews saves the Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews’ 29th goal of the season scored on the power play with less than three minutes left in the game gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils.
The Leafs trailed 3-2 until Michael Bunting leveled the odds 3-3 at 15:10 of the final period with his 20th of the campaign.
Calle Jarnkrok had put the Torontonians ahead at 7:30 of the second period.
Shorthanded Mitch Marner also scored for the Maple Leafs. It was the seventh time in his career that he had hit the target with his team one man short.
William Nylander had two assists.
In the loss, Erik Haula scored his 7th and 8th goals of the season in addition to getting an assist. The Devils’ other goal belongs to Ondrej Palat, who was also an accomplice on both of his goals.
With an assist on Palat’s goal, Dawson Mercer became the third player in Devils history to record at least a point in a tenth consecutive game before the age of 22. He is just one game away from equaling Brendan Shanahan’s mark.
The Flames enjoyed their 2nd life
Nazem Kadri and Tyler Toffoli scored in the shootout, and Jacob Markstrom shone with 40 saves in a 1-0 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Toffoli, who lifted his club to a dramatic victory in Dallas the day before, hit the target in the fourth round, while Minnesota shooter Matt Boldy lacked precision.
The loss is all the more bitter for the Wild following they scored what they believed to be the game-winning goal, captain Jared Spurgeon’s, with 1:33 left in overtime.
Spurgeon got behind Markstrom on a Ryan Hartman pitch return, but the Flames disputed the streak leading to goal, and officials ruled an offside had occurred.
Markstrom, who led the NHL with nine shutouts in 2021-22, had his first of the year in his 45th game.
His compatriot Filip Gustavsson had nothing to be ashamed of at the other end of the ice, as he stopped all 26 shots for the Albertans following 65 minutes of play.
Bobrovsky climbs the hierarchy of the Panthers; Tkachuk injured
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky blocked 30 shots for his 101st win as the Florida Panthers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1.
Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk went to the locker room with regarding six minutes left in the third period with a lower-body injury following blocking a shot.
Bobrovsky joined Tomas Vokoun for third in franchise history in wins. Quebecer Roberto Luongo sits at the top of the list with 230 wins.
Ryan Lomberg opened the scoring for the Panthers at 4:25 of the second period with his ninth of the season.
Aleksander Barkov added to the Florida lead (32-27-6) with his 17th goal on assists from Anthony Duclair and Nick Cousins.
Shea Theodore gave Vegas hope with his eighth goal, scored on the power play, but his team were unable to close the gap followingwards.
The Sabers’ misfortunes continue
Hudson Fasching gave the New York Islanders the win with his fourth goal of the season in a 3-2 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabers have lost four of their last five games while the Islanders are 5-1-1 in their last seven games.
Fasching deflected a Josh Bailey shot at 7:37 of the third period. Otto Koivula also collected an assist on this goal which was confirmed following a video replay.
Former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexander Romanov had assists on two of the Islanders’ three goals.
The Russian was complicit in the goals of Casey Cizikas and Josh Bailey
For the Sabres, Dylan Cozens reached 25 goals. Kyle Okposo scored the other goal in the loss. It was Okposo’s first goal in his last 22 games. We had to go back to January 14 to witness his last goal.
Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves in the win. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen makes 36 in the backhand.
Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill allowed two goals on 42 shots.
The Coyotes have fun in front of Binnington
The Arizona Coyotes manhandled Jordan Binnington to defeat the St. Louis Blues 6-2.
The Blues goalkeeper allowed six goals on 27 shots in this game. In contrast, Coyotes goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 40 saves for this game.
The Blues were still in the game until halfway through the third period. Pavel Buchnevich scored his second goal of the game, his 20e of the season, in order to approach the Blues in points with a deficit of 3 to 2.
The Coyotes didn’t panic, however, and came back even stronger. Travis Boyd, Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse each flashed the red light to help Arizona snap their three-game losing streak.
Keller had a goal and two assists in the game. Boyd found the back of the net on two occasions.
