Pens stay hot, rally by Avalanche


November 16, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

James Neal had a goal and two assists as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied past the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 on Tuesday night.

Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin, Brooks Orpik, Pascal Dupuis and Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins, who scored four times in the third period against Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov to overcome an early 3-1 deficit.

Neal’s power-play goal, his 12th tally of the season, in the third gave him at least one goal in each of Pittsburgh’s eight home games this season.

Marc-Andre Fleury shook off a rocky first period to finish with 24 saves.

Jay McClement, Matt Duchene and David Jones all scored first-period goals for the Avalanche, who lost to an Eastern Conference team for the first time this season.

Wild 4, Blue Jackets 2

COLUMBUS

Cal Clutterbuck scored in the third period and Minnesota rallied for the win.

Matt Cullen scored on the power play for his team-leading eighth goal, and Nick Johnson and Devin Setoguchi also scored for Minnesota.

Niklas Backstrom stopped a season-high 43 shots for the Wild, off to one of the best starts in franchise history at 10-5-3.

Antoine Vermette broke out of a scoring slump with a short-handed goal and Mark Letestu scored on the power play in the first period for Columbus.

Rangers 4, Islanders 2

UNIONDALE, N.Y.

Brad Richards’ go-ahead goal with 4:55 remaining snapped a tie and sent the Rangers to their seventh straight victory.

Bruins 4, Devils 3

BOSTON

Benoit Pouliot scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:01 left in the third period to give Boston its sixth consecutive win.

Coyotes 3, Maple Leafs 2, SO

TORONTO

Patrick O’Sullivan and Radim Vrbata scored shootout goals for Phoenix.

Predators 3, Capitals 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Colin Wilson scored with 24.3 seconds remaining in the third period and Pekka Rinne made 39 saves for Nashville.

Blues 2, Red Wings 1

ST. LOUIS

Alex Steen scored unassisted for the go-ahead goal in the second period, and St. Louis held Detroit Red Wings to single-digit shots in all three periods.