NEW YORK: A depleted Pittsburgh Penguins shrugged off the absence of captain Sidney Crosby to defeat the Calgary Flames 3-1 yesterday.
Blake Comeau, Kris Letang and Rob Klinkhammer picked up the slack by scoring the goals for Pittsburgh (19-6-3), who beat the Flames for the eighth consecutive time.
Crosby missed the game with an undisclosed illness and is also expected to miss contest in Columbus.
The Flames (17-12-2) dropped their fourth straight game.
Canadiens 6, Kings 2
Forty-five saves from goaltender Carey Price and a balanced attack lifted the Montreal Canadiens to a big win over the Los Angeles Kings.
Jiri Sekac (twice) and Sven Andrighetto scored for Montreal (19-10-2), along with P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov and David Desharnais.
Martin Jones made 14 saves for the Kings (15-10-5).
Panthers 3, Red Wings 2 (SO)
Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri scored in the shootout to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Tomas Fleischmann and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for Florida (12-8-7) in the first 60 minutes. Goaltender Roberto Luongo made 23 saves in regulation and in overtime.
Riley Sheahan and Gustav Nyquist got the goals for Detroit (17-6-7) in regulation.
Jimmy Howard made 29 saves in total prior to the shootout in the match.
Ducks 4, Oilers 2
The Anaheim Ducks cruised to a 3-0 lead and held on to defeat Edmonton in a match-up of the best and worst teams in the NHL.
Tyler Pitlick and Jeff Petry scored goals for Edmonton (7-18-5) to trim the deficit before Nate Thompson put the game away with a third-period goal.
The Ducks improved their record to 20-6-5.
Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Penguins said yesterday that they do not believe centre Sidney Crosby has the mumps, but he will be held out of the next two games as a precaution.
There has been a mumps outbreak throughout the NHL during the past few weeks. Crosby missed practice on Thursday with an unspecified illness, and the right side of his face looked swollen during the Friday morning skate. After he underwent tests, doctors thought it best that he sit out.
“There is no indication at this time that this is the mumps, but we are going to hold him out as a precaution,” general manager Jim Rutherford said.
“We’ll have additional test results in a few days,” he added.AGENCIES
