Sidney Crosby used a 5-2 victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night to solidify his place among the greatest in NHL history.
Crosby had an assist Saturday to join Gordie Howe for fifth all-time for most assists with a single team in the NHL. The latter has now obtained 1,023 assists in a Penguins uniform, as many as Howe with the Detroit Red Wings.
He is also ten assists from fourth place, which is rightly held by legend Mario Lemieux. When Crosby reaches 1,033 assists, he will tie Lemieux for the Penguins all-time lead in assists.
Raymond Bourque (1,111 assists with the Boston Bruins) sits atop the list in the NHL and is followed by Wayne Gretzky (1,086 assists with the Edmonton Oilers) as well as Steve Yzerman (1,063 assists with the Detroit Red Wings). ).
Saturday night, the Penguins benefited from goals from Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Blake Lizotte and Kristopher Letang. Michael Bunting, for his part, scored his team’s third goal, the winning goal, against his former team.
With his goal, Letang overtook another Quebecer, Steve Duchesne, for 22nd place in history among defensemen, with 753 points.
In front of the Penguins cage, Tristan Jarry rejected 25 of the 27 shots aimed at him to obtain the victory. Mitch Marner and William Nylander were the two scorers for the Maple Leafs.
The Penguins will face the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, before visiting the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Center on Thursday.
The Penguins took advantage of a numerical advantage quickly in the first period to take control. Well placed in front of the net, Rakell redirected a shot from the blue line by Matt Grzelcyk to put the Penguins in control.
The celebrations were short-lived, however, as the Maple Leafs stars struck less than two minutes later. Marner recovered a rebound from the slot to push the puck into the back of the net, a goal on which captain Auston Matthews amassed his first point of the game.
Crosby then made his place in history when he helped Pittsburgh regain a one-goal lead before the end of the period. A nice feint entering the zone allowed Crosby to take a shot, but the puck missed the net. However, she quickly returned in front of the goal and Rust took the opportunity to score her ninth goal of the season and make the score 2-1.
A power play at the start of the middle period, however, opened the door for the Maple Leafs. Matthews and Marner started a nice passing game that led to Nylander’s tying goal with a one-timer.
In the third period, Bunting completed a nice passing play to score against his old team and put the Penguins back in control for the third time in the game.
And this time, they didn’t look back. Pittsburgh held off a late penalty kill as the Leafs attacked six-on-four, then empty-net goals from Lizotte and Letang confirmed the victory for the Maple Leafs.
Tkachuk stays in high gear
Matthew Tkachuk scored the first two goals of the game and the Florida Panthers beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1.
Tkachuk has scored at least one point in six straight games – he has five goals and 15 points during the streak. Earlier this week, Tkachuk had four points against the Penguins as well as five points against the Flyers.
Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which has lost just once in six games.
The Panthers had no less than 53 shots.
Tyler Toffoli was the scorer for the Sharks, who were outscored 11-2 in Florida. Thursday in Tampa, they were defeated 8-1.
The Avalanche hang on against Detroit
The Colorado Avalanche have the number of the Detroit Red Wings and their success continued in a 2-1 victory.
Thanks to goals from Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar, Colorado improved to 12-0-1 in its last 13 games against the Red Wings. This streak of consecutive games with at least one point against Detroit began on November 19, 2017.
Nichushkin has done well since his return to the Avalanche on November 15, as evidenced by his six goals and nine points in 11 games.
For his part, Makar amassed his 99th point in 2024 with his goal (regular season and playoffs included). With his next point this year, he will become the sixth defenseman in history to have two years of at least 100 points during his career, after his 123 points in 2022.
Paul Coffey (7x), Bobby Orr (5x), Raymond Bourque (4x), Al MacInnis (2x) and Denis Potvin (2x) are the other defensemen to have achieved the feat.
Lucas Raymond scored the only goal for the Red Wings, who were unable to find the back of the net despite some good chances late in the match.
In front of the Avalanche net, Alexandar Georgiev found his bearings with 29 saves. In his last start, he allowed four goals on eight shots.
Utah does well on the road
The Utah hockey club scored three goals in the second period to beat the Sabers 5-2 in Buffalo.
Michael Kesselring and Mikhail Sergachev scored 24 seconds apart to tie the game and give the visitors the lead. It was the third time the team had scored twice in less than 25 seconds this season.
It was the 100th victory of head coach André Tourigny behind a bench of the LNH.
Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain and Kevin Stenlund were the other scorers. Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves.
The Sabres’ six-game losing streak is the organization’s longest since eight games in 2022.
Head coach Lindy Ruff was frustrated with his team’s performance.
“Mentally it was one of our worst games, with so many offsides wasting chances. We don’t play simple games well. On two of the goals, we could have taken the puck out of the zone, but we didn’t do it. Our execution is not good,” Ruff said at a press briefing.
“My job is to get them out of this lethargy. »
Tyson Kozak scored his first career goal in his second National Hockey League game in defeat. He was a seventh-round pick of the team in 2021.
Jiri Kulich also touched the target and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen recovered 23 rounds.
The Utah club won its third straight road game and outscored its opponents 14-4 during that stretch.
Sorensen loses his first game at the helm of the Hawks
In Chicago, Mark Scheifele broke a tie in the third period and the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Blackhawks 4-2.
This was interim head coach Anders Sorensen’s first game behind the Hawks bench.
Mason Appleton had a goal and an assist for the Jets, who won their second straight game after losing four straight. Kyle Connor collected two assists.
Nino Niederreiter and Gabriel Vilardi also found the back of the net for the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck only had to stop 12 shots.
Alex Vlasic and Alec Martinez scored the goals for the Blackhawks, who lost a fifth straight game.
Petr Mrazek started the game, but left after just 11 minutes of play. He appeared to aggravate a groin injury. Coming in relief, Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves.
Pageau brings smiles back to the Islanders
In New York, Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a goal and two assists to lead the Islanders to a 4-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3.
Oliver Wahlstrom, Maxim Tsyplakov and Bo Horvat also found the back of the net for the Islanders, who bounced back after losing five of their last six games.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 shots to get his first victory since November 30.
Andrei Svechnikov, twice, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi moved the strings for the Hurricanes, who lost for the fourth time in their last five outings.
Shayne Gostisbehere had three assists and Pyotr Kochetkov made 21 saves.
Another goal for Kempe
Adrian Kempe set the tone with a 13th goal and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-1.
Kempe has threaded the needle eight times in his last 10 matches
LA prevailed in a fifth straight game, against a Wild who had five wins in a row.
Alex Laferriere also beat Marc-André Fleury, while Trevor Moore scored two empty-net goals.
Anze Kopitar provided an assist in his 1,400th NHL game.
Yakov Trenin responded for the Wild. Fleury made 30 saves.
