NHL : Youngsters lead Penguins past Wild
Pittsburgh’s young Penguins made quite a debut in the “State of Hockey.”
Playing in Minnesota for the first time in their young careers, Evgeni Malkin scored twice and had an assist, and Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists in Pittsburgh’s 4-2 victory over the wounded Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night in St. Paul.
Petr Sykora’s power-play goal – on a beautiful feed from Crosby in the slot – broke the tie with 9:55 to play, and Crosby broke free on a line change by Minnesota and sealed the win with his fifth goal of the season just more than 4 minutes later.
Stephane Veilleux and Brian Rolston scored for the short-handed Wild, who lost at home for the first time this season and fell to 0-3-1 in their last four games after starting the season an NHL-best 7-0-1.
Red Wings 2, Oilers 1: At Edmonton, Alberta, Valtteri Filppula scored with just 24.4 seconds left to send Detroit to a victory over Edmonton. It was the Red Wings’ sixth straight win.
Detroit got a rare win in Edmonton to improve to 10-2-1, best in the NHL by three points over Ottawa.
After a back-and-forth third period, Filppula fought off Dick Tarnstrom and beat Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson high to the glove side.
Henrik Zetterberg’s second-period goal gave him at least one point in each of Detroit’s 13 games this season. Steve Staios scored for Edmonton.
Flames 5, Predators 1: At Calgary, Alberta, Jarome Iginla scored twice and Miikka Kiprusoff made 39 saves fresh off signing a $35-million extension to help Calgary beat Nashville.
Matthew Lombardi, Kristian Huselius and Eric Nystrom also scored for the Flames.
Thrashers 3, Canadiens 2 (SO): At Montreal, Ilya Kovalchuk scored the decisive goal in the shootout to give Atlanta a win over the Canadiens.
Chris Higgins scored Montreal’s second power-play goal of the game with 1:58 remaining in regulation to tie it at 2.
Coyotes 2, Blues 1: At St. Louis, Fredrik Sjostrom scored on a wraparound with 2:58 to lift Phoenix over the Blues.
Michael Zigomanis tied it with about 7 1/2 minutes to go on a breakaway. The Coyotes entered the game in a 2-6 slump since beating the Blues at home in the opener on Oct. 4, but have won five straight in St. Louis.
Brad Boyes scored his ninth goal in 10 games for the Blues.
Around the league
Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron skipped a fundraising dinner honoring him because of a concussion sustained last weekend when he was checked face-first into the boards. There is no timetable for Bergeron to return to the ice. … Simon Gagne hasn’t played for the Philadelphia Flyers since he was knocked out of last Wednesday’s game against Florida with a concussion. He has not been cleared to return to the ice.