NHL Capsules

 

PITTSBURGH (AP) -Kris Letang scored the go-ahead goal off Sidney Crosby’s pass midway through the third period and the Penguins beat the Phoenix Coyotes 3-1 Monday night, their fourth victory in five games.
The Penguins got goals from rookies Letang and Tyler Kennedy in the final nine minutes after Shane Doan had tied it early in the third for Phoenix.
Letang’s third career goal and his first since Oct. 14, 2006, came with a man advantage after Pittsburgh couldn’t convert on in its first seven power-play chances.
After Phoenix was called for too many men on the ice, Evgeni Malkin fed the puck from behind the net to Crosby in the right circle. Crosby faked a shot before throwing a pass across the slot to Letang, whose one-timer beat goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Letang didn’t have a goal in seven previous games this season.
Kennedy made it 3-1 about 3 1/2 minutes later with his fourth goal in 13 games, with Jordan Staal getting only his fourth assist in 26 games.
Maxime Talbot also scored for the Penguins.
Stars 2, Blue Jackets 1, SO
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Niklas Hagman’s shootout backhander powered Dallas to its second shootout win over Columbus this season.
Hagman, the 10th player in the shootout, swooped in on goalie Pascal Leclaire and flicked a backhander past him.
Chris Conner had the Stars’ goal early in the third period, matching Nikolai Zherdev’s first-period goal for Columbus, which fell to 1-5 in shootouts.
Marty Turco had 25 saves for Dallas, with Leclaire stopping 33.
Hurricanes 4, Rangers 0
NEW YORK (AP) – Matt Cullen had two assists in his return to Madison Square Garden and Cam Ward earned his second shutout of the season for Carolina.
Cullen, traded back to the Hurricanes this summer after one season with the Rangers, had the primary assist on Scott Walker’s goal and then helped set up the first of Cory Stillman’s two to give Carolina a 2-0 lead in the first period.
Ward made that stand up, stopping 28 shots for his fourth NHL shutout.
David Tanabe made it 3-0 with 8:30 left in the game, and Stillman finished the scoring at 15:56 with his 15th goal.
Bruins 3, Islanders 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) -Tim Thomas stopped 33 shots to help Boston win for the first time on Long Island in 11 games.
Glen Murray, Petteri Nokelainen and Chuck Kobasew scored for Boston, which was 0-5-4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum since a 4-2 victory on Dec. 22, 2001.
Chris Campoli broke New York’s shutout streak with 1:51 left in the game. The Islanders had been blanked for the previous 140 minutes, 12 seconds. The goal didn’t prevent New York from its first three-game losing streak this season.
New York has now gone 13 straight games scoring two goals or fewer in regulation and overtime.
Sharks 3, Avalanche 2
DENVER (AP) – Steve Bernier, Milan Michalek and Mike Grier each scored, and Evgeni Nabokov made 33 saves to lead San Jose.
Jose Theodore had 25 saves, and Milan Hejduk and Andrew Brunette had goals for Colorado, which fell to the Sharks for the second time in four nights.
Oilers 4, Kings 3, SO
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Mathieu Garon made 31 saves in regulation and stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, leading Edmonton over the Kings in his return to Staples Center.
Garon, who spent the previous two seasons in Los Angeles, made his first start against his former teammates since signing a two-year contract with Edmonton as an unrestricted free agent July 3.
The Kings’ Ladislav Nagy tied it at 3 on a goal that required a lengthy video replay delay for confirmation.
Joni Pitkanen, Dustin Penner and Patrick Thoresen scored second-period goals for the Oilers, who are a league-best 7-1 in shootouts.
Anze Kopitar scored in his third consecutive game and assisted on Dustin Brown’s power-play goal, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Kings’ seventh loss in nine games.
Jean-Sebastien Aubin made 20 saves for the Kings.