MONTREAL (AP) — Sidney Crosby climbed up the NHL career scoring list and Jansen Harkins scored the deciding goal in the 12th round of the shootout, lifting the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.
Crosby had two goals and an assist to move past Paul Coffey and into a tie with former teammate Mark Recchi for 13th place on the NHL points list with 1,533. Jake Guentzel also scored in regulation for the Penguins, who won their second straight after a four-game skid.
Erik Karlsson had two assists and Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 39 saves.
David Savard, Jayden Struble and Sean Monahan scored for Montreal, which has lost eight of its last nine at home. Sam Montembeault had 27 saves.
Montreal’s Nick Suzuki and Cole Caulfield and Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang and Crosby all scored on the first four attempts of the shootout. The next eight skaters couldn’t convert until Sean Monahan scored for the Canadiens and Lars Eller for the Penguins in the seventh round. Another nine skaters went before Harkins, who got only 4:24 of ice time during the game, ended it.
DEVILS 2, BRUINS 1, OT
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Jack Hughes scored at 2:47 of overtime and New Jersey rallied to beat Boston.
Dawson Mercer tied the game in the third period and Vitek Vanecek made 24 saves as the Devils won for the seventh time in nine games. Jesper Bratt extended his scoring streak to six games with the assist on the game winner.
Morgan Geekie scored for the Bruins, who are now 13-1-3 when leading after two periods. The Bruins have won four of their last six. Jeremy Swayman stopped 34-shots.
Bratt found Hughes in the left circle for the game winner after Swayman had stopped him three times earlier in overtime.
ISLANDERS 4, DUCKS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Simon Holmstrom scored the tiebreaking, short-handed goal with 1:33 left in regulation and New York got its fourth straight win.
Mathew Barzal, Kyle Palmieri and Casey Cizikas also scored, and Noah Dobson had two assists to help the Islanders improve to 6-0-1 in their last seven games. Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves.
The Islanders are 9-1-4 in their last 14 games and trail the first-place New York Rangers by just four points in the Metropolitan Division.
Troy Terry, Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick scored for Anaheim, which has lost four straight and 12 of 13. John Gibson finished with 30 saves.
JETS 5, KINGS 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gabriel Vilardi had a goal and three assists in his impressive return to Los Angeles to lead Winnipeg to the win.
Vilardi scored his second goal of the season early in the third period to complete the biggest offensive night of his five-year career in his first game against the Kings, who drafted him with the 11th overall pick in 2017. Los Angeles sent him to the Jets last summer along with Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari in a trade for Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored twice in Winnipeg’s three-goal second period and added a late assist for the Jets, who rallied from an early two-goal deficit to finish their four-game West Coast road trip with three victories. Winnipeg has won five of six overall.
Mark Scheifele finished with two goals and an assist, and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves.
Rookie Alex Laferriere scored an extraordinary goal from behind the extended goal line for the Kings, who have lost three straight for the first time this season. Captain Anze Kopitar also scored, and Cam Talbot stopped 24 shots.
AVALANCHE 5, SABRES 1
DENVER (AP) — Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Nathan MacKinnon reached 800 career points with two assists and Colorado rode a fast start to beat Buffalo.
Nichushkin, Mikko Rantanen and Miles Wood paved the way with first-period goals, while defenseman Sam Malinski scored his first NHL goal in the third period. He also had an assist.
Ivan Prosvetov made 29 saves as the Avalanche wrapped up a five-game homestand with a 3-2 mark.
Zach Benson scored for the Sabres on an emotional night for teammate Erik Johnson, who was honored in the first period with a video tribute after playing parts of 13 seasons for the Avalanche and helping them to the 2022 Stanley Cup title.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 24 saves.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
The Associated Press