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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By MITCH STACY, AP Sports Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — After the Columbus Blue Jackets beefed up their roster at the NHL trade deadline for a Metropolitan Division playoff run, the injury-plagued Pittsburgh Penguins came to town looking more vulnerable than usual.
Missing some top defensemen, the Penguins jumped out to a three-goal lead anyway and then held off the new-look Blue Jackets, cruising to a 5-2 win Tuesday night in a game marked by monster hits and scuffles.
Jared McCann scored twice and Matt Murray made 21 saves as Pittsburgh — which began the day tied for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference — snapped a two-game skid.
The Penguins were without blue-liners Kris Letang (upper body) and Brian Dumoulin (concussion), who were hurt in the outdoor game Saturday at Philadelphia. Pittsburgh defenseman Ollie Maata was already on injured reserve with a separated shoulder.
But the Penguins held Columbus in check, even after another defenseman, Chad Ruhwedel, went out after a big hit from Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno. Ruhwedel and wing Bryan Rust, injured in a violent collision with Columbus newcomer Adam McQuaid, will be evaluated Wednesday, coach Mike Sullivan said.
Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby also scored for Pittsburgh.
“We’ve got nothing but character in here, for sure,” Murray said. “It’s tough seeing teammates go down, they were important guys for us, so we had a job to do and tonight everybody stepped up, so it was awesome to see.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Cam Atkinson scored and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots for the Blue Jackets, who lost after posting back-to-back shutouts last week and making a flurry of moves before Monday’s trade deadline. Columbus started the day in third place in the division.
Columbus added center Matt Duchene, wing Ryan Dzingel, defenseman McQuaid and goalie Keith Kinkaid. All but Kinkaid played on Tuesday night, with Dzingel, a former star at Ohio State, picking up an assist for his new team.
Crosby sent a centering pass from the left corner to Guentzel in the slot and he went top shelf on Bobrovsky with 6:15 left in the first period to open the scoring.
McCann made it 2-0 late in the period when he rifled one in with the unwitting assistance of Columbus defender David Savard, who appeared to keep Bobrovsky from seeing the puck until it was past him. Malkin extended it to 3-0 early in the second with a long, rising shot from the left point.
“They’re an opportunistic team,” Foligno said. “They’re quick-strike, they don’t need many chances to score goals. Disappointing that we didn’t show up in the first (period). We can’t get in a hole like that.”
Bjorkstrand got Columbus on the board when he charged in and shot over Murray’s glove later in the second, and Atkinson scored his team-leading 35th goal on a power play when Artemi Panarin’s hard shot deflected right to him in the right circle.
But the Blue Jackets couldn’t tie it.
McCann banged a wrist shot past Bobrovsky with 6:33 left in the game, and Crosby scored an empty-net goal with five seconds remaining, giving the Penguins superstar a goal and an assist on the evening. He has 27 goals and 50 assists this season.
“We came out hard, kind of let up there in the second but had to find a way to get two points,” Murray said.
NOTES: Columbus forward Boone Jenner played in his 400th game with the Blue Jackets. … D Erik Gudbranson, obtained Monday from Vancouver, didn’t play for Pittsburgh because he’s going through the immigration process.
UP NEXT
Penguins: At the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
Blue Jackets: Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang each had two goals, and the Pittsburgh Penguins climbed back into playoff position with a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday.
Defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Brian Dumoulin also scored for the Penguins (31-21-7), who leapfrogged the Carolina Hurricanes for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Mats Zuccarello had two goals, and Kevin Hayes and Mika Zibanejad scored over the game’s final 5:46 for the Rangers, who couldn’t complete a second rally after erasing a 3-1 deficit to tie it late in the second period.
The Rangers were not able to take the lead during a four-minute power play that spanned the second intermission. Forty-nine seconds after that penalty expired, Letang took a feed from Sidney Crosby and beat goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
Malkin then scored twice in a span of 2:31 to give him four goals in two games since serving a one-game suspension for a stick-swinging incident.
Crosby had three assists to give him 11 points in his past five games, helping to atone for the high-sticking double-minor that gave the Rangers a prime chance to take the lead.
The Penguins had won just seven of their previous 17 games to fall in danger of missing the postseason for the first time since 2005-06.
Malkin has had, by his standards, an off season. But he has points in seven consecutive games that he has played over the past month, interrupted by missing five games with an upper-body injury and the one game because of suspension.
Letang opened the scoring 16:11 into the game. He has 15 goals, one off his career high set in 2015-16.
It was the first time all season the Penguins got four goals from defensemen.
Zuccarello’s goals were his 10th and 11th, each tying the game. Ryan Strome also scored for New York, which had won three of its previous five.
NOTES: The Rangers scratched D Brady Skjei (lower-body injury sustained during Friday’s game), C Brett Howden (MCL sprain) and RW Jesper Fast. Fast scored during Friday’s win but has reportedly been dealing with an undisclosed injury. … Penguins D Chad Ruhwedel was in the lineup for the third consecutive game after having not played prior to that since Nov. 19. … Penguins LW Tanner Pearson was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive day after he had been in the lineup for every game since his acquisition from the Los Angeles Kings in November.
UP NEXT
Rangers: New York wraps up a four-game trip Tuesday at Carolina.
Penguins: Continuing a stretch of four divisional matchups over a five-game span, the Penguins play at New Jersey on Tuesday.
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Flames snap 4-game skid, beating Penguins 5-4
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Michael Frolik had the first of four second-period goals for Calgary, and the Flames held on to snap a season-long four-game skid with a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Frolik, Austin Czarnik, Travis Hamonic and Sam Bennett scored during a mid-game 17-minute span for Calgary, which avenged a 9-1 loss to Pittsburgh in October during the teams’ other meeting this season.
Back after serving a one-game suspension for swinging his stick at Philadelphia’s Michael Raffl, Evgeni Malkin had a pair of third-period power-play goals for the Penguins. But Pittsburgh couldn’t get the equalizer past goalie Mike Smith, who made 34 saves to win for the first time since Jan. 13.
Calgary never trailed after Andrew Mangiapane opened the scoring 7:06 into the game.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists for the Penguins, who had won their previous two.
Pittsburgh got back defenseman Justin Schultz, who had missed 53 games with a fractured left leg. Schultz assisted on Jake Guentzel’s goal that tied the game at 1 late in the first period and finished with even plus/minus rating. But the Penguins allowed at least five goals for the seventh time over their past 17 games and are 7-9-1 in that time.
The Penguins have dropped to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They entered Saturday one point clear of ninth-place Carolina.
Malkin nearly pulled Pittsburgh back from a 5-2 deficit with goals at 5:42 and 14:41 of the third period, each of which was assisted by Crosby.
Crosby had perhaps the two best chances after during a desperate period of 6-on-5 pressure over the game’s final 90 seconds. One was an attempted swat at a waist-high puck that sailed over the net; another from the right-wing circle went just to the far side. The Penguins also had a chance off the faceoff after an icing with 10 seconds left.
Before he was relieved by Casey DeSmith for the start of the third period, the Penguins’ Matt Murray allowed five goals on 24 shots, though his performance was at least in part attributable to some shoddy defense and some bad luck.
The puck on the goal credited to Mangiapane — the second of his career — hit at least three sticks after it was shot from the left point by Oliver Kylington.
The goal that gave the Flames the lead for good 1:29 into the second period was a loose puck swatted in when no Penguins player picked up Frolik after Murray had stopped Matthew Tkachuk.
Ninety-three seconds after that, Czarnik’s third of the season was a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off the stick of a Penguins defender. And Hamonic’s goal from the right-wing boards with 3:58 left in the second hit Guentzel’s stick on the way in.
Bennett’s goal 2½ minutes later gave Calgary five goals in a game for the 18th time this season. The Flames moved into second in the NHL in goals.
NOTES: Flames C Derek Ryan had three assists, the second three-point game among the 210 he’s played in the NHL. … Penguins RW Phil Kessel had two assists, the first of which (on Crosby’s goal) accounted for his 800th career point. Kessel is the 17th U.S.-born player to reach that milestone. … Crosby has eight points over his past four games.
UP NEXT
Flames: Calgary will return to the Scotiabank Saddledome for the first time in 11 days when it hosts the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
Penguins: The Penguins play home games on consecutive days for the second of three times all season, hosting the New York Rangers on Sunday.
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