Penguins rally, notch first win
Mario Lemieux scored twice during a five-point night and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the reeling Atlanta Thrashers 7-5 Thursday night in Pittsburgh and win for the first time this season.
Down four goals halfway through the first period, the Penguins stormed back with a team record-tying six power-play goals.
The Penguins, in danger of a blowout loss after Ilya Kovalchuk scored once and set up three goals in the opening 9:50, needed 10 games for their first victory – easily the longest stretch in franchise history. The Penguins have at least one point in all but four games, but are 1-4-5.
Lemieux, Sergei Gonchar and John LeClair each scored twice on the power play as all but one of the Penguins’ seven consecutive goals against goalie Steve Shields in his first start of the season came with a man advantage. The only other time in their 39-season history the Penguins scored six power-play goals was Dec. 12, 1986, against Toronto in an 8-3 victory.
The 33-year-old Shields was signed earlier in the day from Chicago of the American Hockey League.
Coyotes 3, Flames 2: At Glendale, Ariz., Curtis Joseph needed to make only 13 saves to earn his 400th NHL victory and Mike Comrie scored twice to lift Phoenix over Calgary.
It gave Phoenix its fourth win in six games and made Joseph the ninth NHL goalie to reach 400 victories, following two straight losses.
Senators 4, Canadiens 3 (OT): At Ottawa, Jason Spezza scored 2:48 into overtime to lift the Senators over Montreal.
Ottawa, 4-0 at home this season, moved into a first-place tie with Montreal in the Northeast Division.
Red Wings 5, Blackhawks 2: At Detroit, Manny Legace made 21 saves in becoming the first NHL goalie to win 10 games in a month and Mathieu Schneider scored twice as the Red Wings knocked off Chicago.
Henrik Zetterberg, Kris Draper and Brendan Shanahan also scored for the Red Wings, who won for the 10th time in 11 games.
Bruins 2, Maple Leafs 1: At Boston, Hannu Toivonen made 36 saves, and the Bruins earned their first Northeast Division victory of the season by beating Toronto.
Boston, which had been 0-5-1 in its division, won for just the second time in seven games.
Flyers 5, Panthers 4 (OT): At Philadelphia, Peter Forsberg tied the game in the final minute of regulation and Joni Pitkanen scored early in overtime to lead the Flyers past Florida.
Only 49 seconds away from their second straight loss, Forsberg instead picked a perfect time to score his first goal of the season.
Rangers 3, Islanders 1: At New York, Jaromir Jagr assisted on a pair of first-period goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 31 shots to lead the Rangers past the visiting Islanders.
The Rangers killed all 11 penalties called against them, and Lundqvist made a game-saving stop on Robert Nilsson’s shot with 2:19 left.
Avalanche 6, Canucks 2: At Denver, Milan Hejduk scored his 200th career goal to help Colorado beat Vancouver and Todd Bertuzzi, who was booed all night in his first game in Denver since breaking Avalanche forward Steve Moore’s neck.
Pierre Turgeon scored twice for the Avalanche to reach 499 for his career, as Colorado snapped the Canucks’ six-game winning streak in the first of two straight games between the Northwest Division rivals.
Around the league
Boston goaltender Andrew Raycroft will be out for a week with a strained hamstring. He was injured Wednesday night in an overtime loss to Carolina. … The San Jose Sharks put goaltender Evgeni Nabokov on injured reserve and recalled goalie Dimitri Patzold from their top affiliate in Cleveland. Nabokov sustained an upper-body injury in a collision in Columbus last Friday.