First	Second	Final
Pittsburgh Penguins	2	2	3
Carolina Hurricanes	0	0	1
Goals	Penguins: Garrett Wilson (10:45) Matt Cullen (18:45)		Penguins: Patric Hornqvist (0:46) Hurricanes: Jaccob Slavin (12:12)

 

 

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pekka Rinne stopped 42 shots to lead the Nashville Predators to a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

Rinne was 63 seconds from his fifth shutout of the season when Nick Bjugstad scored for Pittsburgh.

It was the second game in eight days between the teams and a rematch of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, won by Pittsburgh in six games.

Viktor Arvidsson’s 32nd goal of the season – a power-play goal – set a career high and also was the 100th of his NHL career. Craig Smith and P.K. Subban also scored for the Predators, who moved into a first-place tie in the Central Division. Nashville, which clinched its fifth straight playoff berth Monday, has won five of seven after losing four of its previous six.

Matt Murray made 23 saves for the Penguins, whose three-game winning streak ended. Pittsburgh, which had a chance to tie the New York Islanders for second in the Metropolitan Division, came in having won 10 of 15 games and earned points in 14 of 16.

Rinne won for the first time in Pittsburgh and defeated the Penguins for just the second time in 10 career regular-season starts. In six previous career starts in Pittsburgh, including the playoffs, Rinne was 0-6-0 with a 5.14 goals-against average and a .822 save percentage. He allowed three goals or more in every other appearance in Pittsburgh.

Rinne allowed 12 goals and made just 34 saves during three 2017 Stanley Cup Final in Pittsburgh. He was strong on Friday, stopping 22 first-period shots. Rinne has eight wins and one shutout in his last 13 starts total. The 2018 Vezina Trophy winner recorded his 27th win of the season.

Pittsburgh outshot Nashville 22-11 in the first period, but the Predators held a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes thanks to Rinne. It was the fourth time this season the Penguins recorded 20 or more shots in a period.

Smith scored the lone goal of the period for Nashville when he deflected Matt Irwin’s point shot behind Murray.

Arvidsson scored a power-play goal from inside the top of the left circle at 17:36 of the second period to put Nashville in front by two goals. Ryan Johansen had an assist on the goal to become the second player in team history to record a 50-assist season.

NOTES: Nashville won at Pittsburgh for the first time since Feb. 1, 2015. … D Olli Maatta returned to the lineup for Pittsburgh after missing 21 games with an upper-body injury. … F Evgeni Malkin (upper body), D Kris Letang (upper body) and D Chad Ruhwedel skated on Friday morning, but did not play against Nashville. … Nashville recalled G Troy Grosenick on an emergency basis from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League because of an illness to G Juuse Saros. … Smith joins Filip Forsberg as the only players in Predators history to record five 20-goal seasons. Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel played in his 200th NHL game.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host Columbus on Saturday.

Penguins: Welcome Carolina on Sunday.

	First	Second	Final
Pittsburgh Penguins	0	0	1
Nashville Predators	1	2	3
Goals	Predators: Craig Smith (1:35)	Predators: Viktor Arvidsson (17:36)	Predators: P.K. Subban (17:28) Penguins: Nick Bjugstad (18:57)

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Teddy Blueger scored two goals, Matt Murray made 33 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins surged to a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night.

Justin Schultz, Nick Bjugstad and Matt Cullen also scored for Pittsburgh. Phil Kessel and Marcus Pettersson each added two assists.

Murray improved to 6-0-0 against the Rangers in the regular season and 5-0-0 at Madison Square Garden.

Pittsburgh pulled into a tie with the New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division with 95 points. Both teams trail Washington by one point for first.

Brendan Lemieux and Vinni Lettieri scored for the Rangers. Alexandar Georgiev, coming off a 44-save effort in a 2-1 overtime win Saturday night at Toronto, stopped 31 shots.

Trailing 2-1, the Penguins roared back with three goals in the second.

They tied the game 61 seconds into the period on the power play. Sidney Crosby had the puck behind the Rangers net and sent a pass to Schultz, who one-timed it past Georgiev for his second of the season.

Cullen gave the Penguins their first lead when he sent a high shot past Georgiev’s left shoulder at 7:17.

Later in the period, with the Penguins killing a penalty, Blueger skated in on a break and sent a pass to Bryan Rust. The puck deflected behind the net and Rust sent a pass to Blueger, who scored on a backhand for his fifth of the season at 13:12 to make it 4-2.

Blueger added his second of the game at 7:38 of the third. Jared McCann sent a shot at the net and Blueger got enough of the rebound to put it in for his sixth of the season. The goal withstood a replay challenge for offside.

The Rangers, who will miss the playoffs and are playing out the string, got off to a fast start in the opening period.

Mika Zibanejad skated into the zone and sent a pass to Pavel Buchnevich at the left faceoff circle. Buchnevich quickly sent a cross-ice pass to Lemieux, who wristed it past Murray for his 12th of the season at 8:25. The goal was Lemieux’s third with New York since being acquired at the trade deadline from Winnipeg.

The Rangers made it 2-0 on the power play when Lettieri fired a one-timer from the left faceoff circle past Murray at 15:15 for his first goal of the season.

Just 26 seconds later, Bjugstad got the Penguins on the board when he scored his 12th of the season. He got a loose puck and squeezed it through Georgiev’s pads to make it 2-1.

NOTES: Penguins center Evgeni Malkin remains out with an upper-body injury. He hasn’t played since March 16 against St. Louis. … D Kris Letang missed the game with an upper-body injury. His status is day to day. Zach Trotman replaced him in the lineup. … Rangers forward Jesper Fast will miss the rest of the season because of an injury. D Marc Staal was out with a lower-body injury and forward Chris Kreider is day to day after missing Saturday’s win at Toronto.

UP NEXT

Penguins: Host the Nashville Predators on Friday night.

Rangers: At the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

 

	First	Second	Final
Pittsburgh Penguins	1	4	5
New York Rangers	2	2	2
Goals	Rangers: Brendan Lemieux (8:25) Vinni Lettieri (15:15) Penguins: Nick Bjugstad (15:41)	Penguins: Justin Shultz (1:01) Matt Cullen (7:17) Teddy Blueger (13:12)	Penguins: Teddy Blueger (7:38)

 

DALLAS (AP) — Jared McCann scored twice, including the go-ahead goal on a spinning short-handed play in the third period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Saturday night.

McCann has 11 goals in 26 games since coming over in a trade with Florida, and now leads the Penguins with three short-handed goals. He has four overall this season.

The Penguins stayed even with the New York Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division with 93 points, a point behind Washington.

The Stars finished a five-game homestand with their fourth loss, three in regulation. Dallas holds the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference by two points over Colorado with Minnesota a point behind the Avalanche.

Dallas was looking for its first lead after Jack Johnson was called for holding and the Penguins were just trying to clear the puck when Teddy Blueger poked it away from John Klingberg at center ice. McCann took the pass as he was spinning and flipped the puck over Anton Khudobin.

Matt Murray, who made 29 saves, kept the Penguins in front by stopping a shot from Tyler Seguin and keeping the puck between his legs behind him as he was sprawled on the ice with Alexander Radulov trying to poke it into the net.

The Stars had a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 80 seconds after Bryan Rust was called for holding, but couldn’t get one past Murray. Khudobin had 27 saves.

Jake Guentzel opened the scoring with his team-leading 38th goal for Pittsburgh in the first period.

The Stars scored two tying goals in the second. Seguin easily beat Murray on a cross-ice feed from Radulov barely a minute into the period. Andrew Cogliano pulled Dallas even at 2-2 with 80 seconds left by beating Murray in transition after taking a pass in stride from Klingberg.

The Penguins had a goal waved off in the second period when Teddy Blueger was called for goalie interference Erik Gudbranson’s shot from outside the circle. Gudbranson’s chance came after a wild scramble in front of the net ended with Taylor Fedun sweeping the puck out the crease when Khudobin was beaten.

NOTES: Stars D Jamie Oleksiak was a healthy scratch in his first game against Pittsburgh since the Penguins traded him back to Dallas in January. The Stars sent Oleksiak to the Penguins in December 2017. Both deals involved a fourth-round pick. … Not long after scoring the game’s first goal, Guentzel was stopped on a one-timer right in front of Khudobin. … Stars F Jason Spezza was a healthy scratch for the second time in three games.

UP NEXT

Penguins: Finish four-game trip Monday at the New York Rangers.

Stars: Start four-game Canadian swing Monday at Winnipeg.

 

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sean Couturier beat Matt Murray with 3 seconds remaining in overtime and the Philadelphia Flyers put together an improbable rally to edge the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Sunday night.

James van Riemsdyk tied the score with 18 seconds left in regulation when Murray’s glove couldn’t quite reach van Riemsdyk’s wrist shot from the slot. The team traded a flurry of quality chances in the extra period before Couturier danced around Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby on the rush then sent a shot over Murray’s stick to give Philadelphia’s fading playoff hopes a needed jolt.

Carter Hart finished with 41 saves for his first victory since Feb. 17 as the Flyers put together a comeback that echoed their stunning rally in their stadium series meeting with the Penguins last month. Philadelphia scored twice in the final 3:04 of regulation before winning it in overtime.

Teddy Blueger, starting on the second line in place of injured Evgeni Malkin, scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal as the Penguins managed just one point out of a pair of home games during the weekend.

Murray, who was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots in a loss to St. Louis in Saturday, bounced back by stopping 36 shots but couldn’t get a handle on Couturier’s winner.

The Flyers appeared to take the lead 1:06 into the second period when Claude Giroux’s wrist shot from the right circle beat Murray. The on-ice officials, however, immediately waved it off, ruling Jakub Voracek interfered with Murray as he skated by the crease as the shot closed in. The Flyers challenged the call, and it was overturned by league officials in Toronto. Pittsburgh then challenged that ruling, claiming Philadelphia was offsides when it entered the zone. The call was then overturned a second time, leaving the game scoreless.

Got it?

Goal or no goal, it was one of the few times the Flyers truly tested Murray. The Penguins tilted the ice heavily at times, swarming Hart with extended pressure. Finishing, however, was another matter. If Pittsburgh wasn’t shooting wide — as Nick Bjugstad did on a breakaway in the second period — then the 20-year-old Hart was making an indelible first impression in one of the NHL’s most testy rivalries. He made a gorgeous stop on Patric Hornqvist in the second, extending his left pad to stop a point-blank shot from Hornqvist in the slot.

Hart had no chance, though, on Blueger’s fourth career goal. Marcus Pettersson threw a shot in from the point and Phil Kessel pounced on the rebound. Hart made the save but the puck bounced right to Blueger’s stick. The rookie pounded it into the net to give the Penguins the lead 2:07 into the third.

Yet just as they did in their previous meeting, the Flyers rallied. As the clock ticked down, van Riemsdyk collected a feed from Travis Konecy in the slot and ripped one that gave the Flyers new life.

NOTES: Kessel playing in his 319th consecutive game with Pittsburgh, tying Craig Adams’ franchise record. Kessel has played in 765 straight games overall, the eighth-longest in NHL history. … Pittsburgh’s successful replay challenge marked the 8th time in 14 tries the Penguins have won a challenge this season. … The Flyers were 0 for 3 on the power play. The Penguins were 0 for 4. … Malkin was shaken up in a hit with St. Louis defenseman Robert Bortuzzo on Saturday. He stayed in the game and played more than 19 minutes but was unavailable just over 24 hours later.

UP NEXT

Flyers: Host Montreal on Tuesday.

Penguins: Begin a four-game road trip on Tuesday in Carolina.

 

 

	First	Second	Final
Pittsburgh Penguins	0	0	1
Philadelphia Flyers	0	0	2
Goals			Penguins: Teddy Blueger (2:07) Flyers: James van Riemsdyk (19:41) Sean Couturier (4:56)