Sidney Crosby scored twice to move into a tie for the NHL lead with 37, Carter Rowney added the first goal of his NHL career, and the shorthanded Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils, 6-4, on Friday night in Pittsburgh.
Crosby added an assist to give him 640 in his career and move him into a tie with Jaromir Jagr for the second-most in franchise history. Nick Bonino, Jake Guentzel, and Phil Kessel also scored for Pittsburgh as the Penguins leapfrogged Columbus to move into second-place behind Washington in the Metropolitan Division.
Matt Murray stopped 32 shots for Pittsburgh as the Penguins relied on Crosby and some fresh faces to overcome the loss of Evgeni Malkin, who is out with an upper-body injury.
Kyle Palmieri matched Crosby with two goals for New Jersey. Stefan Noesen and Beau Bennett also scored for the Devils. Keith Kinkaid finished with 37 saves but New Jersey fell to 0-4 against the defending Stanley Cup champions this season.
The Penguins have hung around in the heated race for the top spot in the NHL’s toughest division despite a series of injuries that only seems to be picking up speed as the end of the regular season draws near.
Ron Hainsey, acquired from Carolina just before the trade deadline last month to provide depth along the blue line instead joined fellow defensemen Olli Maatta, Trevor Daley, and Kris Letang in street clothes after suffering an upper-body injury in a loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday and is ‘‘week to week’’ according to coach Mike Sullivan.
While all four are expected back by the time the playoffs begin, for now the defending Stanley Cup champions are being forced to get by with a makeshift bunch that includes talented but flawed youngster Derrick Pouliot and Chad Ruhwedel.
Malkin’s upper-body issue is more of the ‘‘day to day’’ variety and the Penguins managed just fine without the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer.
Panthers 4, Rangers 3 — Aleksander Barkov scored a third-period goal and added the winner in the shootout as the Florida beat host New York.
Jagr had two assists and passed Hall of Famer Gordie Howe for the most points after turning 40 with 269.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and assist and Jussi Jokinen also scored for Florida. James Reimer made 29 saves for the Panthers, who are trying to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Reimer made his seventh straight start with Roberto Luongo out because of a lower-body injury.
Mats Zuccarello scored two goals and J.T. Miller also tallied for the Rangers, who were unable to hold a 2-0 lead. Brendan Smith added two assists.
Antti Raanta made his fourth consecutive start in place of the injured Henrik Lundqvist and finished with 34 saves.
The Rangers have lost six straight home games (0-5-1).
Flames 3, Stars 1 — Mark Giordano had a goal and two assists, Matthew Tkachuk had a goal and an assist, and Calgary defeated visiting Dallas.
Michael Frolik also scored for the Flames, opening the scoring at 16:07 of the first period, assisted by Mikael Backlund and Giordano.
Tkachuk and Giordano scored in the second period. Brett Richie scored the Stars’ lone goal in the the third period.
Brian Elliott stopped 24 shots for Calgary. Kari Lehtonen made 21 saves for Dallas.
