Category: NHL

Penguins end Bruins’ 19-game point streak in 4-2 win

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.

Scoring Updates: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Boston Bruins, Sunday March 10, 2019 at 7:30 pm.

 
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Atkinson scores twice to lift Blue Jackets over Penguins

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cam Atkinson had two goals, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots and the Columbus Blue Jackets broke an eight-game losing streak against the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 4-1 victory Saturday night.

Boone Jenner and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored for the Blue Jackets. They had lost four of their last six — including a 3-0 loss to the Penguins on Thursday night — and desperately needed a win to stay in the mix for an Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot. Columbus started the day two points below the wild-card line.

Zach Aston-Reese scored for Pittsburgh in the second period and Matt Murray, starting his seventh straight game, had 29 saves.

Bobrovsky, who was a healthy scratch Thursday, bounced back with an exceptional game against the Penguins, who were 4-0-2 in their last six and started the day in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Jenner went into the box for slashing 20 seconds into the game, then made up for it by taking a feed from Josh Anderson on a rush and beating Murray to give the Blue Jackets the lead 2:31 into the game.

Atkinson scored a short-handed goal early in the second when Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel went sprawling and the Columbus winger found himself with a loose puck and an open net. He snapped it in over Murray for his team-leading 37th goal of the season.

Pittsburgh pulled it back to a one-goal game at 6:39 of the second when Zach Aston-Reese took Evgeni Malkin’s pass on the doorstep and beat Bobrovsky.

Bjorkstrand tapped in the insurance goal off a short pass from Ryan Dzingel with 3:01 left, and Atkinson got his 38th of the season when he added an empty-netter at the 1:49 mark.

NOTES: Kessel played in 314th straight game for Pittsburgh, the second-longest streak in franchise history. Craig Adams holds the record with 319. … Anderson got his 100th career NHL point. … Atkinson has 12 career short-handed goal, two short of the franchise record. … Columbus last beat Pittsburgh in the regular season on Feb. 17, 2017 (2-1 in overtime). … Malkin has a nine-game points streak against the Blue Jackets. … Columbus is 27-5-2 this season when scoring the first goal.

UP NEXT

Pittsburgh: At Boston on Sunday night.

Columbus: At New York Islanders on Monday night.

Scoring Updates: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets, Saturday March 9, 2019 at 7:00 pm.

 

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Pens beat Blue Jackets 3-0

 

By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mike Sullivan isn’t looking for an explanation. The Pittsburgh Penguins coach isn’t sure there is one that can adequately descdescr why his team dominates the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“All I can tell you is, every game we play them is a hard-fought battle and the margin for error is slim,” Sullivan said.
And every game ends the same: with the Penguins exchanging high-fives on their way to the dressing room while the Blue Jackets trudge off wondering how another one got away.
Matt Murray stopped 25 shots for his 10th career shutout and the Penguins opened a pivotal home-and-home with the Columbus by rolling to a 3-0 victory on Thursday night.
“We’re finding ways to win,” Sullivan said with a shrug.
The Penguins always seem to when the Blue Jackets are on the other side of the ice. Pittsburgh has won eight straight over Columbus. And while the Blue Jackets will get another shot at the Penguins at Nationwide Arena on Saturday night, Pittsburgh put on a defensive clinic in front of Murray to drop Columbus to just 2-4 since the trade deadline.
“I think we need something good to happen,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. “They blocked 24 shots. We have a lot of shot attempts and a lot of good things, but we don’t score a goal.”
For the first time in more than a month, that wasn’t an issue for Penguins forward Phil Kessel, who ended a 16-game scoring drought when he beat surprise starter Joonas Korpisalo just 2:22 into the first period to give Pittsburgh a lead it would never relinquish. The crowd erupted when he banked a shot from in tight off a sprawled Korpisalo and into the net for his first goal since Jan. 30.
“I got lucky tonight,” Kessel said. “I thought it was going to come a little earlier than it did. It took me a little while. But hopefully now I can get a hot streak going or something.”
Nick Bjugstad collected his ninth of the season for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby took a high stick from Columbus’ Boone Jenner in the third period but returned to add an empty-net goal and extend his goal streak to six consecutive games as the Penguins created a little bit of breathing room between themselves and the Blue Jackets in the race for a playoff spot in the crowded Eastern Conference.
Pittsburgh moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division, dropping idle Carolina to the top wild-card spot. The Blue Jackets are currently on the outside looking in. While Korpisalo overcame his sluggish start to finish with 28 saves, his teammates couldn’t get anything by Murray.
Making his sixth straight start, Murray was solid. So were the guys in front of him. Pittsburgh’s defensemen — including recently acquired Erik Gudbranson — prevented Columbus from creating consistent pressure by making sure Murray had a clear line of vision.
“They’ve been stepping up big time, clearing guys out from the front and blocking shots,” Murray said. “They’re just sacrificing a lot. I can’t say enough about those guys back there.”
Tortorella tried to downplay the importance of his team’s final two meetings with the Penguins, though he made a curious decision to start Korpisalo — winless since Jan. 15 — over No. 1 goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, claiming the two-time Vezina Trophy winner needed to get some rest with the stretch looming.
The change in net did little to change the Blue Jackets’ fortunes. Defenseman Scott Harrington was called for tripping barely two minutes in and Pittsburgh pounced. Evgeni Malkin collected a shot behind the Blue Jackets’ net and fed Kessel at the far post.
Tortorella decided to challenge the goal, claiming goaltender’s interference, but the call stood and Tortorella burned his only timeout before most of his players had even broken a sweat. Murray kept the Blue Jackets at bay and Bjugstad finished off a sequence of extended pressure by collecting a pass from Jared McCann then pivoting into space in the slot before beating Korpisalo between the legs with 1:13 to go in the second for his fourth goal since being brought over in a trade with Florida on Feb. 1.
The chippy play between the rivals separated by three hours geographically but by considerably more in terms of stature perked up at times. Pittsburgh’s Garrett Wilson and Columbus captain Nick Foligno received fighting majors in the second period following a brawl that left Wilson’s forehead bloody. Jenner received a double-minor for high sticking Crosby early in the third.
Crosby returned to finish off Columbus with his 31st, leaving the Blue Jackets with one last chance to solve the Penguins this season.
“Scoring and not scoring are both contagious,” Columbus center Matt Duchene said. “All of us are obviously a little snake bit right now.”
NOTES: Penguins D Kris Letang missed his fifth straight game with an upper-body injury. … Pittsburgh is 9-1 while wearing its yellow third jerseys. … The Blue Jackets were 0 for 3 on the power play. The Penguins were 1 for 5. Malkin’s assist on Kessel’s goal pushed his career point total to 997.
UP NEXT
Blue Jackets: Columbus has issues at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets are just 17-16-2 at home this season.
Penguins: Pittsburgh hasn’t lost on the road to Columbus in the regular season since Feb. 17, 2017 (4-0).
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/tag/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Scoring updates: Penguins vs. Blue Jackets, Thursday March 7, 2019

 

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Guentzel’s OT winner lifts Penguins over Panthers 3-2

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored on a breakaway 2:44 into overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Guentzel took a lead pass from Sidney Crosby and slipped a backhand by Roberto Luongo for his second goal of the night and 33rd this season. Pittsburgh picked up two vital points as it tries to create some breathing room in its pursuit of a playoff berth.

Crosby finished with a goal and two assists on the night he became the 48th player in NHL history to reach 1,200 points. Matt Murray had 32 saves for the Penguins. Matt Cullen played 12:36 in his 1,500th career game.

Henrik Borgstrom and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Panthers but Florida dropped its fifth straight — four of them in overtime — when Guentzel found his way behind the defense and came in all alone on Luongo, who made 34 stops but couldn’t reach out and get his glove on Guentzel’s winner.

The 42-year-old Cullen — affectionately known as “Dad” on the club he helped win consecutive Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 — joined some elite company more than a full generation after his NHL debut, becoming the second American-born player and 20th overall to reach the 1,500-game plateau. His teammates honored him by wearing black jerseys with his familiar No. 7 in warmups, and Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel all helped present Cullen with a handful of gifts, including a silver stick and a Penguins-themed ATV.

A short video tribute ended by thanking Cullen for the memories while urging him to help create more. Fitting. The Penguins are in need of a memorable stretch to assure themselves a 13th straight postseason berth. Hardly a given for a talented if erratic club that’s spent the last five months mixing bursts of vintage play with lengthy stretches of mediocrity.

Facing a team whose playoff prospects are eroding by the day, it was more of the same.

Florida needed just 1:45 to take the lead when Borgstrom’s shot from the left circle was redirected into the net by Pittsburgh defenseman Erik Gudbranson. The Penguins pressed to tie it thanks in part to some spirited play by Kessel, who is riding a goalless streak that dates back to Jan. 30. Luongo fended off two quality chances from Kessel in the first period but Pittsburgh pulled even 16 seconds into the second when Mike Matheson’s turnover ended up on Crosby’s stick in the Florida zone.

Crosby tried to slip the puck to Jared McCann but it was poke-checked away. No matter. Guentzel jumped on the loose puck and beat Luongo from the slot. Crosby’s 55th assist of the season also made him the 48th NHL player to reach 1,200 points.

Crosby needed less than 10 minutes to pick up career point No. 1,201. With the Penguins on the power play, he threaded a pass to Kessel. Luongo made the stop but the rebound went right to Crosby, who pounded it home at 10:01 of the second period to reach 30 goals for the ninth time in his career.

Trocheck, a Pittsburgh native, evened it at 2 when his one-timer from the bottom of the left circle zipped past Murray with 2:29 to go in the second.

NOTES: Pittsburgh D Kris Letang skated in the morning but continues to wear a red “no contact” jersey while recovering from an upper-body injury that has sidelined him for the last four games. … The Penguins are the fourth NHL team to have two players reach 1,200 points with one franchise, joining Boston, Montreal and Detroit. … The Panthers went 1 for 3 on the power play. The Penguins were 1 for 2.

UP NEXT

Panthers: Play at Boston on Thursday.

Penguins: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. The Penguins have won each of the first two meetings between the Metropolitan Division rivals.

 

Guentzel, Crosby power Penguins past Canadiens 5-1

MONTREAL (AP) — Jake Guentzel scored two goals and had two assists and Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Evgeni Malkin and Jared McCann — into an empty net — also scored for Pittsburgh, and Matt Murray stopped 36 of 37 shots.

Both the Penguins and Canadiens have 77 points in the standings. Pittsburgh is in the first wild-card spot with the victory, while Montreal dropped down into the second slot.

Brendan Gallagher scored the only goal for the Canadiens. Carey Price gave up four goals on 24 shots and remained one victory away from tying Jacques Plante’s franchise record with 314.

It was the second of back-to-back games for both teams. Pittsburgh lost 4-3 in overtime in Buffalo on Friday, while Montreal defeated the New York Rangers 4-2.

The Canadiens outshot the Penguins 37-25, but Pittsburgh took better advantage of their chances and jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on its first four shots of the game.

The Penguins needed just 21 seconds to beat Price after a bad giveaway by Jordie Benn in his own zone led to Crosby’s deflected goal.

They doubled their lead on the power play when Malkin’s slap shot changed course on a deflection by Joel Armia at 4:38.

Pittsburgh finished 1 for 3 with the man advantage.

Guentzel went five-hole on Price at 8:51 right after a faceoff win by Crosby for his first goal of the night and 30th of the season, his first time reaching the milestone.

The Penguins went the next 11:09 of the first period without firing a shot on net — but still led 3-0 at intermission.

Guentzel netted his second of the game 6:24 into the second period with a precise wrist shot into the top corner of the net.

Pittsburgh’s leading scorer nearly completed a hat trick late while on a breakaway in the second, but Price made a nice glove save.

The Canadiens scored their only goal when Gallagher beat Murray for his team-leading 29th of the season with a shot from inside the left face-off circle.

McCann added the empty-netter with 1:24 left.

NOTES: Crosby has 10 points on his current four-game scoring streak. He also moved into second place on Pittsburgh’s all-time scoring list with his 440th career tally.

UP NEXT

Penguins: host Florida on Tuesday night.

Canadiens: at Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

Scoring Update: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Montreal Canadiens Saturday, March 2nd 2019

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Pens fall to Sabres 4 to 3 in overtime

Conor Sheary scores 2 in Sabres’ 4-3 OT win over Penguins
By JOHN WAWROW, AP Hockey Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Conor Sheary and the Buffalo Sabres aren’t ready to be counted out of the Eastern Conference playoff race just yet.
With Buffalo in jeopardy of fading further down the standings, Sheary assisted on Brandon Montour’s tying goal with 2:32 left in regulation and scored his second of the game with 49 seconds left in overtime in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.
“We know at this point of the year we’ve got to press for every point we can get,” Sheary said. “So these two points were really important. I get the opportunity to be in some really good positions being out there in overtime, and I was able to take advantage.”
After both teams traded scoring chances, Sheary scored on a giveaway in the Penguins end. Marcus Pettersson’s pass up the left boards skipped off the stick of teammate Evgeni Malkin and directly to Sheary. He then cut into the middle and, using Phil Kessel as a screen, snapped a shot that beat goalie Matt Murray over his right shoulder.
The goal was allowed to stand after the NHL reviewed whether the Sabres were offside upon first entering the zone. Though a replay showed Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin crossing the blue line with the puck behind him, the league ruled Dahlin had possession.
“It was big. We’ve been in a rut late,” said Sabres captain Jack Eichel, who also scored. “It was awesome to see ‘Shears’ get rewarded against his old team.”
Scoring clutch goals was a key reason the Sabres acquired Sheary in trade with the Penguins last June. And though he’s only scored 11 times in 60 games for Buffalo, Sheary on Friday provided Buffalo a tremendous boost at time it was slipping out of the playoff race.
By improving to 2-5-1 in their past seven, the Sabres jumped into 11th place in the East, and now sit seven points back of eighth-place Columbus and Pittsburgh, which remained in ninth.
Linus Ullmark stopped 41 shots for Buffalo.
Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist scored power-play goals 63 seconds apart late in the second period, and Nick Bjugstad also had a goal for the Penguins. Crosby’s goal was the 439th of his career to move into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for second on the franchise list.
Murray stopped 26 shots as the Penguins dropped to 5-2-2 in their past nine.
With five weeks left in the season, the aging and injury-depleted Penguins are suddenly facing questions of potentially missing the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons.
“We need to fight. It’s not easy games anymore. We understand that it’s not easy and it’s a good challenge before the playoffs,” Malkin said.
Defenseman Erik Gudbranson made his Penguins debut since being acquired in a trade with Vancouver on Monday. In the meantime, defensemen Brian Dumoulin (concussion) and Kris Letang (upper body) missed their second straight game and have already been ruled out from playing at Montreal on Saturday.
“It’s frustrating for sure that we let a point get away because it was there to be had,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “But I thought for the most of the night we were the better team.”
The Penguins outshot Buffalo 44-30 overall, and went ahead 3-2 with 1:39 left in the second period when Hornqvist and Crosby scored with Sabres forward Scott Wilson serving a double-minor penalty for high sticking Pettersson.
The Sabres responded when Montour, playing in his first game in Buffalo since being acquired in a trade with Anaheim on Sunday, tied it by knuckling in a shot from the blue line that beat Murray on the right, glove side.
It marked Buffalo’s second consecutive overtime win over the Penguins. The Sabres rallied from a 4-1 deficit to beat the Penguins 5-4 in overtime at Pittsburgh in November.
Despite the loss, the Penguins and Crosby continued their lengthy string of dominance over Buffalo.
Pittsburgh improved to 14-0-3 in its past 17 meetings, and hasn’t lost to the Sabres in regulation since Buffalo’s 4-2 win on April 23, 2013. And the Penguins improved to 8-0-2 in their past 10 visits to Buffalo since a 6-2 loss on Feb. 19, 2012.
Crosby has a point in 34 of 38 games against the Sabres — a stretch in which he has 20 goals and 39 assists.
NOTES: Sabres C Vladimir Sobotka is listed as day to day after sustaining an upper-body injury in 5-2 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday. … Sabres D Marco Scandella was out with a lower-body injury. …. Hornqvist became just the second player selected last in the draft to appear in his 700th career game. He joined Kim Johnsson (selected 286th by Rangers in 1994), who played 739 games. Hornqvist was selected 230th overall by Nashville in 2005. … Linesman Brad Kovachik worked his 1,500th career game.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Conclude four-game road trip at Canadiens on Saturday.
Sabres: At Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
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