PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored the second of his two goals at 2:21 of overtime for his 1,400th career point, helping the Pittsburgh Penguins snap a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday.
Crosby added an assist in his 1,100th game, becoming the seventh-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,400 points. It also was Crosby’s 77th game-winning goal, one behind Evgeni Malkin and Jaromir Jagr for the most in team history.
On his latest winner, Crosby got a pass from Rikard Rakell and tipped it behind David Rittich near the post.
Jason Zucker also scored and Rakell assisted on all three goals for the Penguins. Casey DeSmith stopped 33 shots to help Pittsburgh regain a four-point advantage over Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Matt Duchene and Nick Cousins scored for Nashville.
CAPITALS 4, BRUINS 2
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lars Eller made the best of his move back to center, scoring the go-ahead goal and assisting on another score to help Washington beat Boston for its third straight victory.
Eller was only playing center — his natural position — because Nicklas Backstrom was scratched for what the team called “body maintenance.”
Eller assisted on Tom Wilson’s 23rd goal of the season, a career high for the big winger who has scored four times in six games and reached 50 points for the first time.
Alex Ovechkin scored his 45th goal of the season and 775th of his NHL career into an empty net with 1.7 seconds left to seal it. John Carlson also scored, and Vitek Vanecek made 30 saves.
Curtis Lazar and Erik Haula scored for Boston.
LIGHTNING 5, SABRES 0
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brian Elliott made 28 saves, Corey Perry and Ondrej Palat had goals 17 seconds apart in the first period and Tampa Bay beat Buffalo.
Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov and Ross Colton also scored to help the Lightning move past Boston into third place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay had lost four straight (0-2-2) and avoided its first five-game losing streak since Mar. 2-10, 2014.
Buffalo’s Craig Anderson stopped 23 shots.
WILD 6, KINGS 3
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) —Matt Boldy and Jared Spurgeon each had a goal and an assist, helping Minnesota overcome a three-goal deficit to beat Los Angeles.
Kirill Kaprizov tied a franchise record with his 42nd goal, and Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno and Nick Bjugstad also scored as Minnesota ended a two-game slide and improved to 10-1-2 in its last 13 games. The Wild are 8-0-1 in their last nine home contests.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for Minnesota, stopping the final 29 shots he faced.
Rasmus Kupari, Carl Grundstrom and Adrian Kempe scored for Los Angeles.
HURRICANES 5, DUCKS 2
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Staal capped his fourth career hat trick — and first in 10 years — with an empty-net goal and Carolina beat Anaheim.
Andrei Svechnikov and Jordan Martinook also scored for the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes. Svechnikov also had an assist and Nino Neiderreiter assisted on two goals. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for Carolina.
Staal, whose last three-goal game came on April 18, 2012, at Philadelphia while with Pittsburgh, scored the only goals after the first period, knocking in a rebound at 13:42 of the third and then notching the clincher with 1:08 left.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour moved into a tie with his former coach, Peter Laviolette, for the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history with 167.
Josh Mahura and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks, who still have back-to-back victories just once since the end of January. John Gibson stopped 38 shots, but has failed to win in his last 12 starts.
STARS 6, BLACKHAWKS 4
CHICAGO (AP) — Jason Robertson scored his team-leading 33rd and 34th goals about three minutes apart, and Dallas strengthened its hold on a wild-card spot with a win over Chicago.
Roope Hintz had a goal and two assists, and Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn each added a goal and an assist to help Dallas rebound from a 3-1 loss at home to New Jersey on Saturday. Ryan Suter and Miro Heiskanen had two assists each for the Stars, who improved to 41-27-4 (86 points) and moved two points ahead of Vegas for the second Western Conference wild card. Dallas is one point behind Nashville, which is in the top wild-card spot. Jake Oettinger made 36 saves in the second of back-to-back games.
Philipp Kurashev and Jonathan Toews were credited with goals in the first period when their passes deflected in off Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell as he tried to break up plays. Kirby Dach and Boris Katchouk also scored for Chicago.
JETS 4, SENATORS 3
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists to lead Winnipeg past Ottawa.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, Paul Stastny and Kyle Connor also scored for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves.
Brady Tkachuk had a pair of power-play goals for the Senators, who were coming off a 5-1 loss to the Rangers. Josh Norris also scored, while Mads Sogaard, making his second NHL start, stopped 21 shots.
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