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.

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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.

 

 

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored twice during a furious second-period rally and Evgeni Malkin picked up two assists to reach 1,000 career points as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Washington Capitals 5-3 on Tuesday night.

Crosby picked up his 32nd and 33rd goals during a three-goal outburst over a span of 1:48 as Pittsburgh erased a two-goal deficit to take the lead on its way to snapping Washington’s seven-game winning streak. Jake Guentzel started Pittsburgh’s comeback with his team-leading 35th of the season. Phil Kessel and Jared McCann both added a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who have won six of eight.

Matt Murray stopped 38 shots as Pittsburgh topped the rival Capitals for the third time in four meetings this season.

Jakub Vrana scored twice for Washington. John Carlson collected his 11th and Alexander Ovechkin picked up an assist to become the 48th player in NHL history with 1,200 career points. Braden Holtby made 25 saves but briefly came undone during Pittsburgh’s flurry that turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.

The reigning Stanley Cup champions came in riding a winning streak that vaulted them to the top spot in the Metropolitan Division and gave them some cushion in the claustrophobic jockeying for playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

Ten months removed from a dramatic Game 6 overtime victory in the conference semifinals last spring that served as the springboard to their first championship, the Capitals spent the first 30 minutes looking like a serious threat to make another deep run. They smothered Pittsburgh offensively and rode Vrana’s marksmanship and a bit of luck to a 2-0 lead.

Vrana’s wrist shot from the left circle whizzed over Murray’s glove with 32 seconds left in the first period. He scored again 9:36 into the second when his shot from low in the left circle smacked off Murray’s blocker, flipped up in the air, bounced off Murray’s back and then his right skate before trickling into the net.

All of Washington’s momentum vanished in a flash.

McCann started Pittsburgh’s rally by stripping Evgeny Kuznetzov high in the Washington zone before setting up Guentzel, who fired the puck into the empty net 12:37 into the second.

Crosby then got on the board 47 seconds later. Justin Schultz lobbed a flip pass out of the Pittsburgh zone and over the entirety of the neutral zone before it landed at the end of Crosby’s stick. Pittsburgh’s captain held off two defenders while slipping the puck between Holtby’s legs to tie it at 2.

Nicklas Backstrom was called for tripping Malkin shortly after Crosby evened it up, and Crosby capped Pittsburgh’s outburst by finishing off a perfectly executed tic-tac-toe that started with Malkin feeding it to Kessel, who then sent a cross-ice pass to Crosby for a one-timer.

Kessel’s second goal since Jan. 30 11:16 into the third period put Pittsburgh up 4-2. Malkin earned the secondary assist to join Crosby, Ovechkin and San Jose’s Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau as the only active members of the NHL’s 1,000-point club.

Carlson pulled Washington within 4-3 with just over six minutes to play but McCann’s empty-netter with 56 seconds left sealed Pittsburgh’s victory.

NOTES: Oshie’s two assists boosted his career total to 300. … Carl Hagelin, who helped the Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, played 13:13 in his return to Pittsburgh. Hagelin was traded to Los Angeles in November before being sent to Washington at the trade deadline. … Penguins D Kris Letang missed his eighth straight game with an upper-body injury. … Pittsburgh F Zach Aston-Reese sat out with a lower-body injury. … The Penguins went 2 for 4 on the power play. Washington was 1 for 2 with the man advantage.

UP NEXT

Capitals: Continue a four-game road trip on Thursday in Philadelphia.

Penguins: Travel to Buffalo on Thursday to face the Sabres. Pittsburgh lost each of its first two meetings with Buffalo in overtime.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jared McCann scored twice, Matt Murray finished with 39 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins handed the Boston Bruins their first regulation loss since January with a 4-2 victory on Sunday night.

Nick Bjugstad and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins, who survived another late push by the Bruins.

David Krejci picked up his 19th of the season and John Moore got Boston within one when he scored with just over a minute to go. But the Bruins couldn’t complete the comeback, ending their 19-game point streak.

It was the first regulation loss for Krejci and company since Jan. 19 against the New York Rangers.

Jaroslav Halak made 33 stops, but Boston remained winless in Pittsburgh since December 2015.

The Bruins used the franchise’s longest point streak since the 1940-41 season to rise above the muddled portion of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Their six-week stretch included flashes of dominance and a flair for the dramatic. Boston arrived in Pittsburgh coming off a 6-0 homestand, one that culminated with last-minute victories over Florida and Ottawa.

Boston’s run came to an end against a team that seems to be gaining some momentum late in a bumpy and wildly uneven season, at least by Pittsburgh standards. Just 24 hours removed from a draining split with Columbus during a home-and-home series, the Penguins rode the legs of two of their newest acquisitions, a dash of brilliance from Sidney Crosby and Guentzel and another steady performance by Murray to their fifth win in their last seven games.

Bjugstad and McCann have been revelations since their arrival in a trade with Florida on Feb. 1, their presence giving Pittsburgh a jolt of both size and — in the 22-year-old McCann — youth.

Bjugstad needed just 93 seconds to give the Penguins the lead, fighting for position at the far post and redirecting a centering pass from Zach Aston-Reese by Halak for his fifth goal in 18 games with Pittsburgh, matching the total he put up in 32 games with the Panthers earlier this year.

McCann made it 2-0 at 13:54 when he took a lead pass from Teddy Blueger and broke in alone on Halak before deking from his forehand to his backhand. Halak could only stretch out his glove in vain as McCann slipped home Pittsburgh’s 10th short-handed goal of the season.

Krejci got Boston on the board early in the second when the puck emerged from a scrum in front of the Pittsburgh net and ended up on his stick in the left circle. He flipped it over a sprawled Murray for his 19th of the season.

Pittsburgh’s potent power play has been a bit of a mess of late — just as likely to give up a goal as score one — and was a lifeless 0 for 4 until Crosby and Guentzel hooked up for Guentzel’s team-leading 34th of the season with 3:28 to go in the second. Crosby raced into the zone down the left side and sent a perfect cross-ice pass to Guentzel, who quickly went backhand to forehand and lifted it by Halak to restore the two-goal cushion.

Murray, who was spectacular at times in Saturday’s loss to Columbus, made sure the lead stood up. Moore’s blast from the point with 1:01 to play gave the Bruins an outside shot at another dramatic victory, but McCann’s long shot from center ice into the empty net with 21 seconds to go closed it out.

NOTES: Boston D Matt Grzelcyk left in the second period after his right arm was pinned awkwardly against the boards when he got hit by Pittsburgh F Patric Hornqvist. … Penguins D Kris Letang missed his seventh straight game with an upper-body injury. … Both teams went 1 for 5 on the power play. … Pittsburgh C Evgeni Malkin did not score and remains two points shy of 1,000 for his career.

UP NEXT

Bruins: Will face the Blue Jackets for the first time this season on Tuesday in Columbus.

Penguins: Host Washington on Tuesday. Pittsburgh is 2-1 against the reigning Stanley Cup champions this season.