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Center Brad Richards scored the decisive goal in a shootout to lift the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday. |
Richards got the puck past Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to give the Rangers (32-24-3) their fifth win in their last six games.
The Eastern Conference-leading Penguins (40-15-3) lost for just the second time in their last 19 games at Consol Energy Center.
Penguins left winger James Neal sent the game into overtime by scoring with 2:56 left in regulation.
The Penguins were playing just hours after getting the sobering news that defenseman Kris Letang had been diagnosed with a stroke.
‘‘It’s not something that happens very often with our group - our shooters and (Marc-Andre Fleury) in net,’’ Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. ‘‘But Henrik is almost as good, and was tonight.’’
Meanwhile, the Carolina Hurricanes benefited from a rare early scoring burst to defeat the Florida Panthers 5-1.
Center Riley Nash, right winger Alexander Semin and defenseman Brett Bellemore scored in the first period, left winger Jiri Tlusty added a second period goal and defenseman Andrej Sekera converted on a third period power-play.
Center Nick Bjugstad scored for Florida, which heads to an Olympic break with two consecutive losses and five of its last six games.
Defenseman Jon Merrill scored with 2:26 remaining in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers.