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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

NHL Capsules: Staal helps Wild hand Pens first home loss

Minnesota Wild’s Ryan Suter, right, celebrates his goal with Eric Staal (12) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. (Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)
Associated Press

PITTSBURGH – Eric Staal’s third-period goal proved to be the game-winner as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Thursday night.

Staal had two assists, giving him 51 points in 50 career games against Pittsburgh. Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Wild, who won for the fourth time in six games. Jared Spurgeon added an empty-net goal.

Minnesota defeated the Penguins for the first time in five meetings.

Devan Dubnyk, who made 39 saves, allowed fewer than three goals for the eighth straight game, which includes a streak of three consecutive shutouts.

Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist scored on the power play for Pittsburgh, which lost in regulation for the first time in eight games. It was Pittsburgh’s first regulation home loss this season.

Crosby has nine goals and 11 points in eight games since returning from a concussion that sidelined him for the first six games of the season.

Pittsburgh allowed a season-high 43 shots.

Wingels scores winner to lead Sharks over Panthers 4-2

SUNRISE, Fla. – Tommy Wingels scored the go-ahead goal at 8:53 of the third period to lift San Jose over Florida.

Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski and Brent Burns also scored for the Sharks. Martin Jones made 22 saves.

Jason Demers scored his first two goals of the season, both in the first period, for the Panthers. James Reimer stopped 25 shots, and Jaromir Jagr had an assist.

Jarnkrok’s 2 goals lead Predators over Blues 3-1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Calle Jarnkrok scored twice to lead Nashville over St. Louis.

James Neal also scored and Pekka Rinne made 23 saves for the Predators, who have won two straight.

Jaden Schwartz had the lone goal and Carter Hutton made 25 saves for the Blues.

Howard’s 36 saves lead Red Wings past Canucks 3-1

DETROIT – Jimmy Howard stopped 36 shots and Detroit defeated Vancouver.

Dylan Larkin, Brendan Smith and Steve Ott scored for Detroit. Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg, matched against Canucks captain and fellow Swede Henrik Sedin most of the game, had two assists.

Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver, which is 1-9-1 in its last 11 games. Ryan Miller made 24 saves.

Stamkos has 3 points, Lightning beat Islanders 4-1

TAMPA, Fla. – Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves and Tampa Bay beat New York.

Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson and Brian Boyle also scored for the Lightning, who have outscored the Islanders 10-2 in winning the first two games of the season series.

The Islanders got a goal from Andrew Ladd.

New York goalie Jaroslav Halak was replaced by Thomas Greiss 2:50 into the second period.

Stamkos has 111 power-play goals with Tampa Bay, one shy of Vincent Lecavalier’s team record. Victor Hedman got his 188th career assist to become the franchise leader for defensemen.

Price makes 24 saves as Montreal beats the Kings 4-1

MONTREAL – Carey Price made 24 saves and Montreal beat Los Angeles to stay perfect in nine home games this season.

Paul Byron, Daniel Carr, Phillip Danault and Alex Galchenyuk, into an empty net, scored for Montreal (12-1-1), which has won three straight.

Tyler Toffoli scored for the Kings (7-7-0), and Peter Budaj made 19 saves against his former team.

Toffoli ended Price’s shutout bid at 11:57 of the third period on the power play, just minutes after the Canadiens goalie robbed Anze Kopitar while sprawled on the ice.

Price is 19-2-0 in his last 21 starts dating to last season.

Silfverberg, Kesler lead Ducks to 4-2 win over Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. – Jakob Silfverberg scored two second-period goals and added two assists as Anaheim beat Carolina.

Ryan Kesler also had two goals for the Ducks, including an empty-netter with 26 seconds left. Jonathan Bernier stopped 28 shots.

Teuvo Teravainen and Victor Rask scored for the Hurricares, last in the Eastern Conference. Cam Ward made 23 saves.

Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf had a late assist to pass Teemu Selanne as the franchise leader with 532.

Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano played in his 718th straight game, the longest streak among active players, and had two assists.

Boston takes early lead, beats Blue Jackets 5-2

BOSTON – David Backes, David Krejci and Austin Czarnik all had two points apiece for Boston against Columbus.

The Bruins won for the fifth time in seven games and have scored 11 goals in two wins over Columbus this season.

The Blue Jackets lost in regulation for the second time in 10 games.

Torey Krug, Matt Beleskey, Czarnik and Tim Schaller scored four of five straight Boston goals in a span of 9:55 during the first period to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead. Backes added his third of the season at 11:51 of the second.

Tuukka Rask made 15 saves while improving to 8-1.

Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky lost for the first time in five starts and is 0-4-2 against Boston. He was pulled in favor of Curtis McElhinney after giving up four goals on nine shots.

Nick Foligno and Sam Gagner scored for the Blue Jackets. Gagner got an unassisted goal after Bruins defenseman Colin Miller mistakenly knocked the puck into his own net at 8:40 of the third.

Benn snaps goal drought, scores twice in 4-2 win over Flames

CALGARY, Alberta – Jamie Benn snapped a nine-game scoring drought with two goals, including the game-winner on a third-period power play, and Dallas beat Calgary to snap a five-game losing streak.

Lauri Korpikoski and Antoine Roussel, with an empty-netter, also scored for Dallas (5-6-3). The Stars are 1-1-1 with two stops to go on a five-game trip.

Kari Lehtonen made 29 saves to improve to 2-4-2.

Johnny Gaudreau scored both goals for the Flames (5-9-1), who have lost five of six and are 2-5-0 at home.

Jets’ top line produces again in 3-2 win over Coyotes

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Nikolaj Ehlers, Blake Wheeler and Andrew Copp scored to help Winnipeg beat Arizona.

The Jets won for the third time in four games and have earned at least a point in four of five.

Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, making his fourth straight start, had 23 saves. The top line of Ehlers, rookie Patrik Laine and center Mark Scheifele combined for three points.

Radim Vrbata had a goal for the Coyotes, and Tobias Rieder scored with 1.2 seconds to play.