The Pittsburgh Penguins (18-18-8) have been trending sideways since the NHL holiday break. They have just two wins in their last eight games, but they have maintained their hockey .500 standing by virtue of three loser points. They’ll face old friend Jake Guentzel and the difficult Tampa Bay Lightning (22-15-3) on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.
TAMPA -- Jake Guentzel scored in regulation, and had the only successful attempt in the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Amalie Arena on Thursday.
Guentzel notched two assists, four shots on goal and a plus-2 rating in Sunday's 5-2 win over the Penguins.
Guentzel provided an assist and three shots on goal in Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Kings. Guentzel was held off the scoresheet Thursday versus the Sharks in his return from a one-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
Guentzel scored a power-play goal and went minus-2 in Sunday's 4-1 loss to the Ducks. Guentzel scored midway through the second period to get the Lightning on the board. The 30-year-old winger has six points,
Anaheim opened the scoring 6:03 into the game on a redirection by forward Troy Terry, but the Lightning tied the score eight minutes later on the power play. Hedman got the puck at the left point and fed forward Brandon Hagel in the right corner, where the latter passed the puck to Anthony Cirelli at the back post for a tap-in and a tie game.
Here are three reasons to like the Lightning’s new-look power play. Thursday’s moves were transformative, because the personnel and positional changes made it difficult to tell which was the top unit and which was the second. Point men Victor Hedman and Darren Raddysh switched units, with Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel matched with Raddysh.
Evan Bouchard scored the winning goal late in the third period, capping the Edmonton Oilers' rally from a three-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in Denver on Thursday night. Bouchard also had an assist,
Dylan Larkin scored two goals and the surging Detroit Red Wings beat the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Thursday night. Larkin, Jonatan Berggren and Patrick Kane had power-play goals for Detroit, which also got a goal from Marco Kasper.
Alex Ovechkin's OT goal was his 874th career goal, putting him 20 away away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s mark of 894.
Artemi Panarin scored twice, Chris Kreider got the go-ahead goal with 9:38 left and the New York Rangers rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night. Reilly Smith tied it 3-all with a short-handed goal 28 seconds into the third period for the Rangers,