WASHINGTON (AP) — Evgeni Malkin scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Friday night in the 95th NHL game between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
While all eyes were on Crosby and Ovechkin, Malkin set up Erik Karlsson’s goal 3:11 into the first and then scored the winner with 9:32 left. With 18 points, Malkin is the leading scorer for the Penguins, who won for the sixth time in 16 games this season after getting a goal from Michael Bunting assisted on by Karlsson and 32 saves from rookie Joel Blomqvist.
Noel Acciari, who swept the puck off the goal line to save a goal earlier, sealed it with an empty-netter with 22.9 seconds left.
Rasmus Sandin and Andrew Mangiapane scored for the Capitals, whose seven-game home winning streak came to an end. Charlie Lindgren made 28 saves, many of them spectacular, in a losing effort.
MAPLE LEAFS 3, RED WINGS 1
TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Friday night.
John Tavares scored twice, including an empty-netter with 1:30 to go, for Toronto. Morgan Rielly had two assists and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.
Marner has a goal and 10 assists as part of a seven-game point streak.
Dylan Larkin scored for Detroit, and Cam Talbot finished with 17 saves.
The Maple Leafs were without Auston Matthews after placing the star forward on injured reserve before the game. The three-time Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy winner as the NHL’s leading goal-scorer also sat out Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over the Boston Bruins.
Marner got the Maple Leafs on the scoreboard first with a power-play goal with 8:48 left in the opening period.
Larkin tied it on the power play for Detroit at 9:10 of the second, but Tavares regained the lead less than two minutes later with Toronto’s second power-play goal of the night.
WILD 5, DUCKS 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist and Minnesota beat Anaheim.
Jake Middleton, Marcus Foligno and Marco Rossi also scored for Minnesota and Filip Gustavsson made 32 saves. The Wild improved to 7-1-1 away from home, the most road victories in the NHL.
Robby Fabbri and Mason McTavish scored and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves for Anaheim. Trevor Zegras was awarded a penalty shot in the second period, but he missed the net entirely when his backhander went over the crossbar.
The Ducks have been outscored 14-5 during a three-game losing streak.
KRAKEN 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, OT
SEATTLE (AP) — Jared McCann scored 29 seconds into overtime and Seattle beat Vegas.
Brandon Tanev had two goals and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored as the Kraken snapped a four-gam losing streak. Joey Daccord stopped 21 shots.
Nicolas Roy had a goal and an assist, and Alex Pietrangelo and Pavel Dorofeyev also scored for Vegas. Jack Eichel had three assists and Adin Hill finished with 28 saves.
Pietrangelo scored with 1:22 left in the third period to tie the score 3-3.
The Associated Press