NEW YORK (AP) — Philip Tomasino scored the go-ahead goal midway through the second period, and the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Friday night.
Blake Lizotte and Rickard Rakell also scored and Bryan Rust had two assists for the Penguins, who won for the third time in four games despite playing without captain Sidney Crosby for the first time in three seasons. Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves.
Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox scored for the Rangers, who snapped a two-game win streak. Igor Shesterkin finished with 23 saves.
Crosby was out due to an upper-body injury. He had played every game since the start of the 2022-23 seasons and leads the team with 58 points, including 17 goals. Evgeni Malkin also missed his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury.
Tomasino fired a shot past Shesterkin on the power play with 8:01 left in the second period, less than three minutes after Rakell had tied the score.
Pittsburgh, outshot 10-0 in the third, smothered two Rangers power plays late in the period to preserve the win.
JETS 4, ISLANDERS 3
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Gabriel Vilardi scored two second-period goals and Winnipeg won their eighth consecutive game by beating New York.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Alex Iafallo also scored for Winnipeg while Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele had a pair of assists each. Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves.
Kyle Palmieri, Marc Gatcomb and Simon Holmstrom scored for the Islanders while Ilya Sorokin stopped 23 shots.
Vilardi tied the game 2-2 with his first goal 4:23 into the second period. He scored his second goal with 2:42 left in the second to make it 4-2 for Winnipeg.
Holmstrom opened the scoring just 1:05 into the game.
BLACKHAWKS 6, PREDATORS 2
CHICAGO (AP) — Ryan Donato had two goals and two assists, and Chicago handed Nashville its sixth straight loss with a victory.
Connor Bedard, Seth Jones and Frank Nazar each had a goal and an assist as Chicago stopped a three-game slide. Pat Maroon also scored and Teuvo Teravainen had two assists.
It was the Blackhawks’ first win over the Predators since a 2-1 victory at Nashville on March 16, 2023. The Predators had won six in a row in the Central Division series, including their first two meetings this season.
Colton Sissons and Tommy Novak scored for Nashville, which won five in a row before its current slide. Juuse Saros made 24 saves.
Chicago grabbed control in the second period. Donato set up Bedard’s one-timer for a power-play goal at 5:47. Donato added a slick backhand at 15:24 before Jones finished a pretty passing sequence in the final seconds, giving the Blackhawks a 5-1 lead.
The big second period provided more than enough support for Petr Mrazek, who stopped 31 shots in the win.
AVALANCHE 5, OILERS 4
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Martin Necas scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period, and Colorado beat Edmonton.
Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists, Cale Makar had two goals and an assist, and Artturi Lehkonen also scored to hel the Avalanche win for the fourth time in five games. Mackenzie Blackwood had 23 saves.
Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry each had two goals for the Oilers, who snapped a two-game win streak. Stuart Skinner started and gave up three goals on 12 shots in the first period. Calvin Pickard came on to start the second period and had 17 saves the rest of the way.
The two teams combined for four goals in a 2:34 span midway through the first period. Lehkonen then gave the Avalanche the lead with 1:52 to go in the period.
Makar had a short-handed goal at 6:39 of the second for a 4-2 lead, but Perry got the Oilers back within one with a power-play goal 1:09 later and Draisaitl tied it with 4:01 left in the period.
KINFA 5, STARS 4, SO
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kevin Fiala scored for the third straight game and also converted in the shootout to give Los Angeles a win over Dallas.
Anze Kopitar tied it midway through the third period, Warren Foegele and Alex Laferriere also scored as the Kings won their third straight.
David Rittich made 26 saves and stopped Matt Duchene’s shot in the shootout after Adrian Kempe and Fiala made their attempts.
Duchene had two goals and an assist, while Thomas Harley and Mavrik Bourque also scored for Dallas. Jake Oettinger made 33 saves.
The Stars have dropped the first two games on their three-game California road trip.
Dallas broke through in the third after trailing three times, going in front when Duchene got his second goal on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.
But Kopitar put Kempe’s centering pass in with his right skate 1:59 later. The fortunate break was Kopitar’s 432nd career goal, breaking a tie with Dave Taylor for third-most in franchise history.
The Associated Press
