NHL Capsules

PITTSBURGH (AP)—Sidney Crosby(notes) had his fourth career hat trick and added two assists for his second five-point game and the Pittsburgh Penguins won for the fourth time in five games, 8-3 over the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

Crosby fell a point short of his career high for points. He had six points with a goal and five assists Dec. 13, 2006, in an 8-4 win at Philadelphia.

Crosby scored once in the first and twice in the third period and added two-first period assists to help the Penguins rout the Rangers, winless in regulation at Mellon Arena in their past 13 tries.

Evgeni Malkin(notes), Max Talbot(notes), Mark Eaton(notes), Pascal Dupuis(notes) and Tyler Kennedy(notes) also scored for Pittsburgh, which has won six of eight and remained tied with Washington atop the Eastern Conference standings with 36 points.

Defensemen Marc Staal(notes), Matt Gilroy(notes) and Michal Rozsival(notes) scored for New York, which has lost four of six and is 6-12-1 since a 7-1 start.

Thrashers 1, Flyers 0

ATLANTA (AP)—Johan Hedberg(notes) made 34 saves for his first shutout in two years and Atlanta stopped a 14-game losing streak against Philadelphia.

Rich Peverley(notes) scored his 10th goal, his sixth on the power play, midway through the second. Hedberg stopped 13 shots in the third period for his 12th career shutout.

Ending what was the NHL’s longest current losing streak against one opponent, the Thrashers won their third straight overall. Philadelphia has lost two straight and five of six. The Flyers hadn’t lost to Atlanta since Nov. 18, 2005.

Kings 2, Blackhawks 1, SO

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Anze Kopitar(notes) and Jack Johnson(notes) scored in the first two rounds of a shootout for Los Angeles, and Jonathan Quick stopped both Chicago attempts.

Quick finished with 32 saves, and Wayne Simmonds(notes) scored early in the second period.

Jonathan Towes had a third-period goal for Chicago. The Blackhawks dropped consecutive games in Anaheim and Los Angeles after winning eight straight.

Flames 4, Blue Jackets 3, SO

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Calgary backup Curtis McElhinney(notes) stopped Anton Stralman(notes) in the fourth round, and Jamie Lundmark(notes) followed with the shootout winner for the Flames.

With the Blue Jackets seemingly in control late in the third period with a 3-1 lead, Calgary’s Dustin Boyd(notes) and Nigel Dawes(notes) scored in a 1:19 span to tie it.

Making only his second start, McElhinney made 29 saves to push the Flames’ road points streak to nine games. The Flames are 9-1-3 on the road.

Olli Jokinen(notes) had a goal and assist for Calgary. Rick Nash(notes), Marc Methot(notes) and Jared Boll(notes) scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets have lost five in a row.

Capitals 4, Canadiens 3, SO

MONTREAL (AP)—Nicklas Backstrom(notes) scored the only shootout goal on Washington’s third attempt, and Semyon Varlamov(notes) stopped Montreal shooters Mike Cammalleri, Maxim Lapierre(notes) and Tomas Plekanec(notes).

Eric Fehr(notes) scored his second goal of the game to draw Washington even at 3 with 11.4 seconds remaining in regulation. Alexander Ovechkin also scored for the Capitals. Plekanec, Travis Moen(notes) and Jaroslav Spacek(notes) scored for Montreal.

Bruins 4, Senators 3, SO

BOSTON (AP)—Michael Ryder(notes) scored the lone goal in the shootout, lifting Boston to its fifth win in six games—and sixth straight over Ottawa.

Ottawa’s Milan Michalek(notes) forced overtime, scoring his second goal of the game with 19.3 seconds left and the goalie off for an extra attacker.

Ryder also had one of Boston’s three power-play goals. Dennis Wideman(notes) and David Krejci(notes) had the other two for the Bruins. Daniel Alfredsson(notes) also scored for Ottawa.

Red Wings 4, Blues 3, SO

ST. LOUIS (AP)—Todd Bertuzzi(notes) beat Chris Mason(notes) high with a backhander in the fourth round of the shootout tp end Detroit’s losing streak at three games.

Henrik Zetterberg(notes) had a goal and an assist, Tomas Holmstrom(notes) and Kris Draper(notes) added goals and Jimmy Howard(notes) made 32 saves for Detroit. Holmstrom’s power-play goal at 2:35 of the third ended Detroit’s scoreless streak at 175:57.

David Backes(notes), Roman Polak(notes) and Brad Boyes(notes) also scored for St. Louis.

Sabres 5, Hurricanes 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)—Ryan Miller(notes) made 30 saves, and Buffalo scored five goals in the third period to keep Carolina winless on the road.

Thomas Vanek(notes), Derek Roy(notes) and Jochen Hecht(notes) had a goal and assist each, and Mike Grier(notes) and Clarke MacArthur(notes) also scored. Matt Cullen(notes) scored for Carolina, 0-10-3 on the road.

Devils 6, Islanders 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)—Brian Rolston(notes) and Patrik Elias(notes) each had two goals and two assists, and Martin Brodeur(notes) made 22 saves in New Jersey’s sixth straight home win.

Zach Parise(notes) had a goal to extend his career-high points streak to 10 games, and Mike Mottau(notes) also scored. Richard Park(notes) scored for New York.

Predators 4, Panthers 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)—J.P. Dumont(notes) and David Legwand(notes) scored early in the third period, and Dan Ellis(notes) made 23 saves for Nashville.

Dan Hamhuis(notes) and Joel Ward(notes) also scored for Nashville, coming off a 3-1 home loss to St. Louis on Friday night that snapped its winning streak at seven games.

Jordan Leopold(notes) scored for Florida.

Stars 4, Lightning 3, OT

DALLAS (AP)—Tom Wandell(notes) scored at 2:12 of overtime for Dallas after the Stars blew a two-goal lead late in regulation.

Stephane Robidas(notes) and Jere Lehtinen(notes) scored power-play goals during a 71-second span of the second period, and Brenden Morrow(notes) added a third-period power-play goal to give Dallas a 3-1 edge. But the Lightning’s Steve Stamkos and Jeff Halpern(notes) scored a stretch of 47 seconds to tie it. Paul Szczechura(notes) also scored for Tampa Bay.

Wild 3, Avalanche 2, SO

DENVER (AP)—Mikko Koivu(notes) and Andrew Ebbett(notes) scored in the shootout, and Josh Harding(notes) stopped both of Colorado’s shooters to give Minnesota a home-and-home sweep.

Eric Belanger(notes) and Guillamume Latendresse scored in regulation, and Harding made 20 saves for Minnesota, which beat Colorado 5-3 on Friday night in St. Paul.

Craig Anderson(notes) made 34 saves, and Matt Duchene(notes) and Matt Hendricks(notes) scored for Colorado. The Avalanche have lost five of their last six games.

Canucks 7, Oilers 3

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—Christian Ehrhoff(notes), Alex Burrows(notes), Mason Raymond(notes) and Daniel Sedin(notes) scored in the first 8:25 to pace Vancouver.

Tanner Glass(notes) scored with 16.7 seconds left in the first period, and Alex Edler, Mikael Samuelsson(notes) added goals to help the Canucks win for the fourth time in five games and improve to 10-3-0 at home.

Colin McDonald(notes), with his first NHL goal in his second game, and Dustin Penner(notes) and Gilbert Brule(notes) scored for Edmonton.