NHL Last Night: Crosby Shines in Shootout

Sidney Crosby produced a goal and assist in regulation, then the shootout winner to help Pittsburgh edge Washington 4-3 for the Penguins' sixth consecutive victory and the Capitals' fourth straight loss.

After Crosby lifted his shot over Jose Theodore's glove, Marc-Andre Fleury thwarted Alex Ovechkin with a kick save to end the shootout. Fleury also stopped Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov to help Pittsburgh complete the first 5-0 trip in franchise history.

In regulation, Ovechkin scored his league-leading 47th goal, and Crosby got his 25th. Pittsburgh built a 3-1 lead as Sergei Gonchar and trade-deadline pickup Bill Guerin tallied in the second period. But Ovechkin and Brooks Laich tied it with goals only 49 seconds apart early in the third. Semin also scored in regulation.

Rangers 4, Bruins 3
At New York, Sean Avery was warmly welcomed by Rangers fans in his first home game at Madison Square Garden in nearly a year, and newcomer Nik Antropov had a goal and assist to help New York beat Boston for its third straight win.

Avery, who rejoined the Rangers this week after being banished by Dallas following crude comments he made in December, assisted on Ryan Callahan's second-period goal. Nikolai Zherdev scored the go-ahead goal with 6:22 left, and Scott Gomez also scored for New York, 3-1-1 since John Tortorella replaced fired coach Tom Renney.

Chuck Kobasew, Zdeno Chara and Michael Ryder scored for Eastern Conference-leading Boston.

Canadiens 3, Stars 1
At Dallas, Carey Price made 31 saves, and Andrei Kostitsyn, Alex Kovalev and Chris Higgins scored as Montreal killed nine of 10 power plays to beat Dallas.

With the victory, the Canadiens jumped to fifth in the Eastern Conference and improved to 4-12-1 in their last 17 road games.

Loui Eriksson had a power-play goal for Dallas. The Stars lost their sixth straight at home to match a franchise record set in 1970 in Minnesota.

Avalanche 5, Blackhawks 1
At Chicago, Peter Budaj made 24 saves, and Marek Svatos and Ryan Smyth each had a goal and an assist to help Colorado beat Chicago and end a six-game losing streak.

Ben Guite, Chris Stewart, Milan Hejduk also scored, and Tyler Arnason had three assists. The six-game skid was the franchise's longest since the Quebec Nordiques lost eight in a row in January 1992. Jonathan Toews scored for Chicago.

Thrashers 5, Flames 2
At Atlanta, Bryan Little scored twice and Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and an assist as Atlanta beat Calgary for consecutive wins in regulation for the first time since Jan. 20.

Chris Thorburn and Tobias Enstrom also scored for Atlanta, and Kari Lehtonen made 27 saves. Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy scored for Calgary.

Wild 3, Ducks 2
At Anaheim, California, Stephane Veilleux scored twice and Niklas Backstrom made 36 saves for Minnesota, 10th in the Western Conference playoff race.

Andrew Brunette also scored for Minnesota. Scott Niedermayer and Todd Marchant scored for Anaheim, a point behind Minnesota in 11th place.

Islanders 3, Coyotes 2
At Uniondale, New York, Yann Danis made 30 saves, and Jeff Tambellini, Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo scored as the New York Islanders edged Phoenix.

Scottie Upshall and Shane Doan scored for Phoenix, and Josh Tordjman made 23 saves in his NHL debut. The Coyotes have lost five of six.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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