Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Radim Zohorna (67) celebrates his first career NHL goal with fellow AHL call-ups Frederick Gaudreau (11) and Anthony Angello on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
Keith Srakocic | AP photo
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PITTSBURGH — Jared McCann scored a pair of power-play goals, Casey DeSmith made 36 saves and the Pittsburgh Penguins extended Buffalo’s winless streak to 16 straight with a 4-0 victory on Thursday night.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton call-up Radim Zohorna picked up a goal on his first shot in the NHL for the Penguins. Jake Guentzel added an empty-netter and Sidney Crosby had three assists to raise his career point total to 1,300 as Pittsburgh swept a pair from the NHL’s worst team with relative ease.
Buffalo’s bizarre season took another strange turn when general manager Kevyn Adams found himself on the bench serving as head coach after interim Don Granato and assistant Matt Ellis were placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol a few hours before the opening faceoff.
What he saw up close looked an awful lot like what he’s seen from afar over the last two-plus months. The Sabres are an injury-riddles mess. Buffalo has now been shut out more times (seven) than it has wins (six).
Even fleeting moments of success don’t last. Victor Olofsson appeared to put the Sabres on the board with 5:57 to play only to have it overturned on replay when winger Jeff Skinner was ruled offside.
Dustin Tokarski played well in his second straight start while filling in for injured Carter Hutton, stopping 27 shots, but the Sabres were held at bay by DeSmith and a defense that prevented few quality chances.
Buffalo’s 0-14-2 stretch is the worst since the Penguins went 0-17-1 from Jan. 13 to Feb. 22, 2004.
The Penguins have their own problems, including an injured list that grew longer on Wednesday night when forward Kasperi Kapanen went down with a lower-body injury. Kapanen joined a group that includes forward Evgeni Malkin, Brandon Tanev and Jason Zucker.
Pittsburgh, however, has stayed afloat despite the issues and received a surprising boost when the massive 6-foot-6, 24-year-old Zohorna copied a feat accomplished by Hall of Famer and team owner Mario Lemieux when he scored on his first-ever shot in the NHL.
Zohorna, signed to a two-way contract last year after starting his career in the Czech Republic, found himself alone in the left circle when he whipped a wrist shot past Tokarski to give the Penguins the lead 17:21 into the first.
McCann, put on the top power-play unit thanks to all the injuries, zipped a wrist shot past Tokarski 1:27 into the second. The goal was set up thanks to a fantastic play by Crosby, who batted down a clearing attempt out of mid-air at the blue line and slid it over to Kris Letang, who then fed it to McCann.
The Sabres never really responded. DeSmith stymied a short-handed breakaway early in the third period but otherwise faced little traffic directly in front of him.
McCann’s second goal, a wrist shot from the left circle, made it 3-0 with 11:04 to go. When Guentzel found the empty net with 1:06 remaining, it made Crosby the 36th player in NHL history to reach 1,300 points.
Rangers 8, Flyers 3
PHILADELPHIA — Mika Zibanejad had three goals and three assists, Adam Fox had five assists and New York routed Philadelphia.
Pavel Buchnevich added two goals, and Ryan Strome, K’Andre Miller and Filip Chytil also scored as the Rangers won their third straight and fifth in their last seven games.
Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier scored for the slumping Flyers, who have lost four in a row and 10 of 14.
The teams were meeting eight days after the Rangers’ 9-0 home win over the Flyers, and New York continued where it left off at the outset of this one.
The Rangers scored three straight goals in the opening period then notched two power-play goals in the opening 2:06 of the second to chase goalie Carter Hart, who allowed five goals on 10 shots. They scored another goal 36 seconds later on their first shot against Brian Elliott.
Eleven shots, six goals and a 15-0 goal run over two games.
Ryan Strome had three assists for the Rangers, who were led by acting coach Kris Knoblauch for the fifth straight game. Igor Shesterkin made 41 saves.
Zibanejad scored his first with 6:24 left in the first on a deflection of Fox’s slap shot from the point to make it 3-0. His second 54 seconds into the second period on the power play was a one-timer after a cross-ice pass from Fox, and he got his third 1:12 later on a slap shot from the slot.
That was the end of the day for the slumping Hart, who has allowed 16 goals over a three-game skid.
Miller scored on a wrister from the blue line that appeared to go off defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on the first shot on Elliott.
Islanders 4, Bruins 3
BOSTON — Anthony Beauvillier scored 21 seconds into overtime and New York rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Bruins in the first major league sporting event in Boston with fans in attendance since the pandemic shutdown.
The Islanders trailed 2-0 after one period but Jean-Gabriel Pageau cut the margin in half in the second, Josh Bailey tied it in the third and Oliver Wahlstrom gave New York the lead with 2:56 left in regulation. Just 54 seconds later, though, Anders Bjork tied it again.
Right after the faceoff to begin the extra period, Nick Leddy brought the puck into the Boston zone and snapped off a shot that bounced off goalie Jaroslav Halak and trickled into the crease. Beauvillier came along to swipe it in.
Capitals 4, Devils 3
WASHINGTON — Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice, Alex Ovechkin kept his hot streak going with the 721st goal of his NHL career and Washington brushed off some rust to beat New Jersey for their eighth victory in nine games.
Kuznetsov, Ovechkin and fellow Russian Dmitry Orlov have all heated up offensively in recent weeks after missing time earlier this season for violating pandemic protocol. Their contributions Thursday snapped New Jersey’s winning streak at two.
Ovechkin has scored eight times in his past nine games after what counted as a slow start for a player who has more goals than all but five players in league history. His team-leading 15th goal this season put him 10 back of Marcel Dionne for fifth place and helped Washington shake off some cobwebs after an unusually long break in a condensed schedule.
Hurricanes 4, Blue Jackets 3
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sebastian Aho scored 1:26 into overtime to give Carolina a win over Columbus and earn a split of a four-game series.
Aho had a wide-open net after Martin Necas’ shot off a rush was stopped by Joonas Korpisalo, but the goalie’s momentum forced him out of the crease.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored from the doorstep to tie the game for Columbus with 16 seconds left in regulation.
Maple Leafs 3, Senators 2
OTTAWA, Ontario — Justin Holl scored at 4:42 of overtime to give Toronto a victory over Ottawa.
Holl scored after Toronto star Auston Matthews broke up an Ottawa 3-on-1 in the neutral zone. Matthews wasn’t able to finish himself, but the puck found its way to Holl for his second goal of the season.
Jason Spezza and Ilya Mikheyev also scored for Toronto, and Jack Campbell made 29 saves.