NEW YORK (AP) — Teddy Blueger scored two goals, Matt Murray made 33 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins surged to a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
MINNESOTA WILD
LAST SEASON: 45-26-11, 101 points. Third in Central Division. Lost to Winnipeg Jets in Western Conference quarterfinals.
COACH: Bruce Boudreau (third season, 12th NHL season).
ADDED: RW J.T. Brown, C Eric Fehr, C Matt Hendricks, RW Matt Read, D Greg Pateryn, D Matt Bartkowski.
LOST: C Matt Cullen, LW Tyler Ennis, RW Daniel Winnik.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
LAST SEASON: 47-29-6, 100 points. Finished second in Metropolitan Division. Lost to Washington Capitals in Eastern Conference semifinals.
COACH: Mike Sullivan (fourth season, sixth NHL season).
ADDED: D Jack Johnson, C Matt Cullen.
LOST: F Conor Sheary, F Tom Kuhnhackl, D Matt Hunwick, F Carter Rowney.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Matt Cullen scored two goals and had an assist to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-3 preseason win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Zach Trotman, Garrett Wilson, Adam Johnson, Juuso Riikola and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh. Fourteen Penguins players recorded at least one point, led by Cullen and Zach Aston-Reese (three assists) who had three points each.
Matt Murray stopped 30 shots while playing the entire game in goal for the Penguins.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — No team in the ultra-competitive Western Conference has made the playoffs more times in a row than the Minnesota Wild, with six straight appearances to share the current streak lead with the Anaheim Ducks.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Eric Staal is having the type of scoring surge where it seems the puck finds its way into the net whenever he shoots.
The Minnesota center scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the Wild surged past the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Friday night.
Staal has 11 goals in his last nine games, giving him 37 for the season — just three behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin for the league lead.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As Minnesota recovered from an early deficit against the San Jose Sharks, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau turned to assistant Bob Woods and told him to keep sending defenseman Jared Spurgeon out on the ice as much as possible.
Spurgeon then helped the Wild to an important two points.
Spurgeon scored with 12 seconds left in overtime to give the Minnesota a 3-2 victory Sunday night.
"I said, 'Play Spurge a lot. He looks like he's got it,'" Boudreau said. "He had his mojo today."
NEW YORK (AP) — Minnesota knows it needs to play better on the road to strengthen its push for a playoff spot. The Wild also want to do a better job of holding third-period leads than they have lately.
They accomplished both Monday against the New York Islanders.
MINNESOTA WILD
LAST SEASON: 49-25-8, 106 points. Won Metropolitan Division. Lost 4-1 to St. Louis Blues in Western Conference quarterfinals.
COACH: Bruce Boudreau (second season, 11th NHL season).
ADDED: C Matt Cullen, LW Marcus Foligno, RW Tyler Ennis, D Kyle Quincey.
LOST: D Marco Scandella, RW Jason Pominville, C Erik Haula, C Martin Hanzal, D Christian Folin, D Nate Prosser, C Ryan White, G Darcy Kuemper.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
LAST SEASON: 50-21-11, 111 points. Second in Metropolitan Division. Beat Nashville in six games to win Stanley Cup.
COACH: Mike Sullivan (third season, fifth NHL season).
ADDED: RW Ryan Reaves, G Antti Niemi.
LOST: G Marc-Andre Fleury, D Trevor Daley, C Nick Bonino, LW Chris Kunitz, C Matt Cullen.
A handful of Pittsburgh Penguins players whose names are on the Stanley Cup, some of them twice or even three times, are gone.
The same goes for core players from the back-to-back Presidents' Trophy winning Washington Capitals.
Matt Cullen could have easily called it a career at age 40 after winning consecutive Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That's what he and everyone around him expected him to do, but his body bounced back strongly enough this summer from the postseason grind that he believed he could continue for another year.
After pondering a return to Pittsburgh, Cullen determined that there was only one place to justify returning for a 21st season in the NHL.
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins arrive at their latest showdown looking very much like they did a year ago.
It's the little things that might matter most this time around.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The quality Mike Sullivan appreciates the most in Evgeni Malkin is the one that separates the Pittsburgh Penguins star from just about everyone else who happens to do what Malkin does for a living.
"He's such a threat when he's on the ice," Sullivan said. "He's one of the elite players in the league that has the ability to change the outcome."
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Conor Sheary's breakout season with the Pittsburgh Penguins hit a speed bump on Wednesday. The team says the second-year forward is out 4 to 6 weeks due to an upper-body injury.
Sheary is third on the team with 17 goals while working on a line with captain Sidney Crosby. Sheary's 35 points rank fourth for the defending Stanley Cup champions. It's unclear when the 24-year-old was hurt. Sheary played 16:52 and picked up an assist in Tuesday night's 4-2 victory over Nashville.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins were rested after a week off since their last game, while the Tampa Bay Lightning were playing for the third time in four days.
It showed.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 28 shots in his fifth straight win, leading the Penguins to a 6-2 victory over the Lightning on Sunday.
Fleury, who has not lost in regulation since allowing six goals to the Minnesota on Nov. 25, is 7-0-1 in his last eight decisions.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sidney Crosby is tied for the NHL goal-scoring lead, and the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins are tied atop the division.
They certainly impressed the struggling Florida Panthers and their new coach.
Sidney Crosby got his 18th goal and added an assist to lead the Penguins over the Panthers 5-1 on Thursday night.
Conor Sheary, Tom Kuhnhackl, Matt Cullen and Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh. Matt Murray made 28 saves.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan keeps insisting there isn't a switch his team can flip that makes two-goal deficits vanish within a matter of minutes.
It just seems that way.
Bryan Rust had his first career hat trick, Sidney Crosby added his NHL-leading 17th goal and the Penguins raced past the Ottawa Senators 8-5 on Monday night. Pittsburgh poured in six goals over the final 32 minutes after spotting the Senators a 4-2 lead.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A two-goal deficit was no big deal for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Phil Kessel and company responded with one big finish.
Kessel scored twice, including one of Pittsburgh's four goals in the third, and the Penguins rallied to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Saturday night.
"You just have to stick with it in games like this," Kessel said. "We did and we got rewarded."
NEW YORK (AP) — Sidney Crosby got angry, and then the Pittsburgh Penguins got even in a big way against the division-leading New York Rangers.
Following a first-period skirmish with Ryan McDonagh, Crosby had two goals and an assist during a five-goal second period and the Penguins shut down the Rangers in a 6-1 rout on Wednesday night.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan ranks Kris Letang as one of the top three defensemen in the NHL.
Letang justified that lofty praise in his return after missing five games with an upper-body injury, scoring a power-play goal and adding an assist as the Penguins defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Wednesday night.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Once again, the Pittsburgh Penguins showed their resilience. Their coach hopes they can make it a little easier on themselves, though.
Evgeni Malkin scored twice, including the tiebreaker in the third period, and Sidney Crosby also had two goals to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 comeback victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.