PHILADELPHIA -- Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal each scored goals, and Sidney Crosby had a pair of assists that sparked the sputtering Pittsburgh Penguins to a needed 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
The Penguins won for only the second time in nine games and scored four straight goals to put an emphatic end to Philadelphia's eight-game home winning streak. They also got goals from Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke, and Marc-Andre Fleury nicely rebounded from a first-period blunder to stop 27 shots.
Pittsburgh played the first two periods more like the team that beat the Flyers in last year's Eastern Conference finals than the one that came in stuck in an alarming slump that left them outside a playoff spot.
The Flyers skated to the top of the Atlantic Division on the strength of their longest home winning streak since 2005. The Flyers hadn't lost at home in regulation this season since Nov. 8, and they jumped on the Penguins with an early goal and another sellout crowd taunted Crosby every time he touched the puck.
The Penguins, though, sorely needed this win against their division rivals to stop their slide down the standings. This win helps for now, but they'll need to string together a few more like this one before Pittsburgh can say it's ready to think about a repeat of its stirring Stanley Cup run. Full story
Rangers 2, Islanders 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Chris Drury and Nigel Dawes scored 1:56 apart in the second period for the New York Rangers, who rallied for a win and sent the rival New York Islanders to their fifth straight loss.
Trailing 1-0 after a first period in which they were soundly outplayed, the Rangers bounced back with help from their often-punchless power play. New York got the best of third-string goalie Yann Danis, who arrived from Bridgeport of the AHL earlier Tuesday and was in the net before six minutes elapsed because of an injury to starter Joey MacDonald.
He finished with 24 saves, but it wasn't enough for the Islanders, who lost the first game of a five-game homestand after going 0-4 on a western road trip. New York, the owner of the NHL's worst record, has only two wins since Nov. 29 (2-15-2).
Henrik Lundqvist, who posted his first two shutouts of the season in his previous two appearances, made 33 saves for his 22nd win. The Rangers are 2-0-1 on a five-game trip that has stops in Chicago and Pittsburgh this weekend.
Blue Jackets 4, Avalanche 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Kristian Huselius and R.J. Umberger each had a goal and assist, and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Colorado Avalanche.
Rookie Jakub Voracek and Michael Peca also scored for the Blue Jackets, which have won three straight and seven of nine.
Chris Stewart had a goal and assist, and Marek Svatos and Ryan Smyth tallied for Colorado, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Brett Clark added two assists.
Tied 1-all after two periods, the teams traded five goals in 3:41 in the third with Columbus taking a 4-2 lead on Peca's wrist shot from the slot for his fourth at 9:11. Smyth pulled Colorado to 4-3 with a power-play score from close range at 10:27 with his 15th.
Devils 5, Canucks 3
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Zach Parise, Travis Zajac and Dainius Zubrus all had a goal and an assist and the New Jersey Devils built a pair of three-goal leads and hung on to beat the slumping Vancouver Canucks.
Pavol Demitra scored with 7:41 left and Steve Bernier made it 4-3 with 2:41 left to make it interesting before Dainius Zubrus scored into an empty net in the final minute.
Brian Rolston and Parise scored 3:29 into the game, Brian Gionta made it 3-0 midway through the first period, and Scott Clemmensen finished with 25 saves as New Jersey won for the second time in five games.
Alex Burrows also scored for the Canucks, who have one win in their past six games and have dropped five straight on home ice.
Wild 6, Coyotes 3
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Owen Nolan, Andrew Brunette and Cal Clutterbuck each had a goal and an assist and the Minnesota Wild held off the Phoenix Coyotes.
Steven Reinprecht had a goal and an assist for Phoenix, which twice trailed by three goals but rallied to 4-3 in the third before falling to Minnesota for the 10th time in its past 11 meetings.
Things went well for the Wild right from the start as defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron made an emphatic and immediate return to the Minnesota lineup, scoring on the first shot of the game 46 seconds after the opening faceoff. Bergeron had missed 10 games with a knee injury.
Minnesota built a commanding lead when Nolan scored after a feed from Brunette later in the first period, then set up Brunette's backhand goal early in the second.
Flames 3, Blues 1
CALGARY, Alberta -- Mike Cammalleri scored two goals and the Calgary Flames earned a victory over the St. Louis Blues.
David Moss scored the game-ahead goal at 16:18 of the third period, giving the Flames a 2-1 lead on a power play. It came when his centering pass caromed off the glove of fallen Blues defenseman Jay McKee and bounced past goalie Chris Mason.
Cammalleri then clinched Calgary's seventh straight home win with his second of the game and 17th goal of the season 49 seconds later.
That goal was a nice effort by Cammalleri, who stepped around Blues defenseman Barret Jackman then took the puck to the net beating Mason inside the post.
