AROUND THE NHL

AROUND THE NHL

Thursday’s games

Penguins 6, Wild 3

PITTSBURGH

Evgeni Malkin scored two power-play goals and Sidney Crosby had three assists to reach another career milestone as Pittsburgh topped Minnesota. Malkin, who has 23 goals, added an assist to give him 16 goals and 31 points in his last 24 games. Crosby passed Jaromir Jagr for second on the team’s all-time scoring list with 1,082 points and is now behind only Penguins owner Mario Lemieux, who finished his career with 1,723 points. Dominik Simon scored two goals, Carl Hagelin had a goal and an assist and Brian Dumoulin scored one goal for Pittsburgh. Phil Kessel, the Penguins’ leading scorer with 58 points, also had three assists for the Penguins, who won their fifth straight home game. Pittsburgh has wins in seven of its last nine games overall. Rookie Casey DeSmith, making his fourth straight start for Pittsburgh, stopped 23 shots. DeSmith had his bid for his first NHL shutout end when Eric Staal scored with 11:16 to play. Staal scored his 20th of the season, Mikael Granlund added his 15th on the power play and Jonas Brodin had his fifth for the Wild, whose season-best six-game points streak ended.

Blue Jackets 2, Coyotes 1

GLENDALE, ARIZ.

Cam Atkinson scored with 3:03 left for Columbus. Returning from a broken foot that sidelined him for 11 games, Atkinson tipped in Alexander Wennberg’s shot. Wennberg also scored to help the Blue Jackets win for the second time in five games. Columbus won its sixth consecutive game against Arizona, and snapped the Coyotes’ season-high five-game points streak. Sergei Bobrovsky had 38 saves, outdueling Antti Raanta, who stopped 25 shots for Arizona in the game that was scores after two periods.

Predators 3, Devils 0

NEWARK, N.J.

All-Star defenseman P.K. Subban scored in his third straight game and Pekka Rinne made 23 saves for his fourth shutout in leading the streaking Nashville Predators to a victory over the slumping New Jersey Devils. Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson also scored as the Predators extended their point streak to a season-high eight games (6-0-2). With regular goaltenders Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid injured, rookie Ken Appleby made 24 saves in his first career start for the Devils, who have lost four straight in regulation. New Jersey has two wins in its last 12 games (2-7-3).

Lightning 5, Flyers 1

PHILADELPHIA

Brayden Point, Yanni Gourde and Ryan Callahan each scored in the second period to lead Tampa Bay over the Philadelphia Flyers, helping the Lightning head into the All-Star break with the best record in the NHL. Vladislav Namestnikov scored twice late in the third to turn this one into a rout. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 shots. The Flyers pulled the goalie with 7:20 left and got a 6-on-4 goal from Travis Konency. But otherwise the Flyers had nothing for Vasilevskiy.

Capitals 4, Panthers 2

SUNRISE, FLA.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th goal of the season and got his 500th career assist to help Washington snap a three-game skid. Ovechkin is the sixth player in NHL history with at least 30 goals in 13 or more consecutive seasons at any point in his career. Brett Connolly, John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals. Braden Holtby stopped 32 shots. Denis Malgin scored both goals for Florida, which has lost three straight. Harri Sateri made 42 saves in his second NHL start.

Associated Press