Pittsburgh: Center Brad Richards scored the decisive goal in a shootout to lift the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday.
Richards got the puck past Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Rangers (32-24-3) their fifth win in their last six games. The Eastern Conference-leading Penguins (40-15-3) lost for just the second time in their last 19 games at Consol Energy Center.
Penguins left winger James Neal sent the game into overtime by scoring with 2:56 left in regulation.
The Penguins were playing just hours after getting the sobering news that defenseman Kris Letang had been diagnosed with a stroke.
The Carolina Hurricanes benefited from a rare early scoring burst to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-1.
Center Riley Nash, right winger Alexander Semin and defenseman Brett Bellemore scored in the first period, left winger Jiri Tlusty added a second period goal and defenseman Andrej Sekera converted on a third period power-play.
Center Nick Bjugstad scored for Florida, which heads to an Olympic break with two consecutive losses and five of its last six games. Defenceman Jon Merrill scored with 2:26 remaining in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers.
Merrill found himself alone near the left faceoff circle and blasted a shot past goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to end the contest.
Left winger Andrei Loktionov also scored for the Devils while right winger Taylor Hall netted for the Oilers.
Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle and forward Radim Vrbata scored power-play goals and goaltender Mike Smith handed the Chicago Blackhawks their first shutout of the season in the 2-0 victory.
Yandle scored 69 seconds into the game and Vrbata scored on a 5-on-3 advantage with two and a half minutes remaining in the second period.
Smith made 29 saves, including one at point-blank range by forward Patrick The Coyotes (27-20-10) moved a point ahead of Vancouver into eighth place in the Western Conference while Chicago fell to 35-11-14.
The San Jose Sharks found just enough energy and offense to beat a team that played the night before in a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sharks right winger Tommy Wingels scored his career-high 12th goal of the season at 5:11 to cap a long San Jose cycle that featured a full line change without the puck exiting the zone to claim the win.
The Sharks scored two goals in the opening 8:13 thanks to a fast start.Reuters
