Dell stuffs Pens in Sharks’ win

Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Tomas Hertl scored a tiebreaking, power-play goal early in the third period and Aaron Dell made 31 saves to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Timo Meier also scored and Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns added two assists each to help the Sharks win for the fourth time in five games. Dell did the rest to improve to 8-0-1 in his last nine starts.

Conor Sheary scored the lone goal for the Penguins, who had won five of their previous six games.

Casey DeSmith made 34 saves, including robbing Kevin Labanc on a breakaway in the third to keep Pittsburgh within a goal.

In a rematch of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final won by Pittsburgh, the game was played with good pace and both teams had chances. But it took until a power play early in the third for the Sharks to finally take the lead.

Just four seconds after Jamie Oleksiak was sent to the box for cross-checking, San Jose capitalized by scoring a power-play goal in its 10th consecutive home game.

Pavelski won the faceoff from Riley Sheahan back to Burns at the point. Burns then took a shot that was deflected to Pavelski and saved by DeSmith. But Hertl was left alone in front and knocked in the rebound for his 13th goal of the season.

The Penguins started fast and got the first goal when Dominik Simon played the puck behind the net to Sheary, who scored. Sidney Crosby got the secondary assist, extending his point streak to a season-high seven straight games.

But the Sharks took over shortly after that and got 11 straight shots on goal, tying the game when Meier scored his 10th of the season off a cross-ice pass from Pavelski.

Maple Leafs 4, Senators 3

OTTAWA, Ontario

Connor Carrick snapped a tie midway through the third and Toronto scored three times in the final period to rally past Ottawa.

The win stopped a four-game losing streak for the Maple Leafs, who also got third-period goals from Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Zach Hyman scored in the first, Jake Gardiner had three assists and Frederik Andersen made 15 saves.

Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman and Tom Pyatt scored to give the Senators a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes. Craig Anderson made 29 saves.

Avalanche 3, Rangers 1

DENVER

Nathan MacKinnon, Erik Johnson and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist, Jonathan Bernier made 27 saves and streaking Colorado won its ninth consecutive win.

Pavel Buchnevich scored and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 34 shots for New York.

MacKinnon has goals in five straight games and has at least one point in each game of Colorado’s streak. He is second in the NHL in scoring with 59 points (23 goals, 36 assists).

FLYERS 3, DEVILS 1

PHILADELPHIA

Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, Michal Neuvirth made 28 saves and Philadelphia scored all its goals in the first period against New Jersey.

Ivan Provorov and Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Flyers, who won their sixth in the last seven to move closer to a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Jesper Bratt scored for the Devils, who called on goalie Ken Appleby for his NHL debut after Keith Kinkaid was injured in the first period.

Kinkaid made his third straight start in place of Cory Schneider (illness) but left after appearing to injure his right leg while giving up his third goal.