Sidney Crosby scored three straight goals for his first natural hat trick in more than five years, and the Penguins opened the second half of the season with a 6-5 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at Pittsburgh.

The two-time NHL MVP pushed his goal total to 20 and has scored at least one in Pittsburgh’s last eight home games. The Penguins have won four straight and lost in regulation just once since Jan. 6.

Chris Kunitz had a goal and two assists. Kris Letang added a goal and an assist, and Matt Cullen also scored for Pittsburgh. The Penguins’ six goals were a season high. Marc-Andre Fleury settled down after a shaky start and finished with 18 saves.

Panthers 5, Capitals 2 — Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice during a three-point night and Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist to help visiting Florida beat Washington in a matchup of Eastern division leaders.

The Atlantic Division-leading Panthers also got a goal from Vincent Trocheck, an empty-netter from Quinton Howden, and 36 saves from backup goalie Al Montoya as they won their fourth game in a row. They took advantage of backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer and the absence of Washington star Alex Ovechkin, who was required to sit out after missing the NHL All-Star Game with an injury.

Flyers 4, Canadiens 2 — Wayne Simmonds scored two goals to lead host Philadelphia.

Simmonds snapped a tie in the third period with his 16th of the season, sparking the Flyers to the second-half start they needed as they make a playoff push.

Brayden Schenn also scored for the Flyers. Matt Read added an empty-netter in the final seconds and Steve Mason stopped 30 shots.

Andrei Markov and Jeff Petry scored for Montreal.

Devils 3, Rangers 2 — At Newark, David Schlemko scored on a power play with 8:46 left as New Jersey rallied twice to beat New York.

Lee Stempniak and Joseph Blandisi also scored, Cory Schneider made 31 saves and the surprising Devils beat the Rangers for the second straight time this season. It was their fifth win in six games.

Blackhawks 2, Avalanche 1 — At Denver, Corey Crawford stopped 22 shots, Richard Panik and Artemi Panarin scored as Chicago won without captain Jonathan Toews.

NHL-scoring leader Patrick Kane added an assist with Toews suspended a game by the league for pulling out of All-Star weekend. Toews cited an illness.

Gabriel Landeskog scored the only goal for Colorado, which was missing starting goalie Semyon Varlamov. He wrapped up a civil lawsuit filed against him by a former girlfriend, with jury ruling in his favor late Tuesday and awarding Varlamov approximately $126,000 in damages.

Calvin Pickard gave up two early goals before settling into a rhythm. He stopped 40 shots.

Islanders 5, Wild 3 — Brock Nelson’s team-leading 20th goal broke a tie late in the second period and Jean-Francois Berube made 40 saves for his first NHL win for host New York.

Blues 1, Predators 0 — Troy Brouwer scored with 1:05 remaining in the third period and Brian Elliott made 16 saves for visiting St. Louis, which won all four matchups between the teams this season.

Coming off his first All-Star Game appearance, Pekka Rinne made 22 saves in defeat. The Predators had won a season-best four straight.

Stars 5, Jets 3 — Tyler Seguin scored twice, John Klingberg had a goal and an assist for visiting Dallas.

Seguin scored for the first time in five games and Klingberg had gone eight games without a goal.

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The NHL has rescheduled three games that were postponed because of the recent snowstorm on the East Coast. The Pittsburgh at Washington game will take place March 1.

The other two games — Anaheim at Washington and Philadelphia at the Islanders — have been reset for April 10 to end the regular season.