Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his game-winning goal in overtime with Evgeni Malkin during an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar)
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal at 1:38 of overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 on Wednesday night.
Evgeni Malkin became the 48th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals and Crosby became the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 regular-season points in a career. Crosby, from behind the net, sent a between-the-legs pass in front to Malkin, who was sitting on the ice when he scored his goal.
Crosby reached the milestone when he recorded the secondary assist on Bryan Rust’s power-play goal at 11:01 of the first period. Rust scored his second goal with 46 seconds left to force overtime. Drew O’Connor scored a short-handed goal and Jesse Puljujarvi added his second of the season.
Tristan Jarry allowed three goals on five shots in the first period before he was pulled. Joel Blomqvist came on and finished with 26 saves.
J.J. Peterka, back after missing the last two games with a concussion, scored twice for Buffalo. Ryan McLeod, Tage Thompson and Jordan Greenway also scored for the Sabres and Alex Tuch had two assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 36 shots.
MAPLE LEAFS 6, KINGS 2
TORONTO ( AP) – Auston Matthews broke out of a season-opening points drought, scoring his first goal and adding his first two assists as Toronto’s captain in their victory over Los Angeles.
Matthews made it 2-0 midway through the first period, quickly regaining control after fanning on a shot and beating David Rittich with a wrist shot.
The NHL goals leader last season with 69, Matthews also assisted on two power-play goals to to help the Maple Leafs win for the third straight time after an opening 1-0 loss at Montreal.
Bobby McMann scored twice in Toronto’s three-goal first period, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander and John Tavares added goals and Anthony Stolarz stopped 32 shots. Mitch Marner had three assists.
Alex Turcotte and Kevin Fiala scored in the third period for Los Angeles.
BRUINS 5, AVALANCHE 3
DENVER (AP) – David Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm scored 13 seconds apart in the second period to help Boston beat Colorado, sending the Avalanche to their fourth straight loss.
It’s the longest skid to start a season for the Avalanche since 1998-99. That squad got back on track behind a lineup that featured Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy. They made it to the Western Conference final before losing to Dallas.
Cole Koepke and Charlie Coyle added goals, with John Beecher wrapping up the game on an empty-netter with 2:01 remaining. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 22 shots for the Bruins.
Ross Colton, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen scored for the injury-riddled Avalanche. The Bruins led 4-1 midway through the second period only to see the Avalanche cut it to 4-3 on Rantanen’s goal with 15:08 remaining.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals. He’s now surrendered 17 goals over four games. Last season, Georgiev led the NHL with 38 wins.
DUCKS 5, UTAH 4, OT
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – Leo Carlsson scored 54 seconds into overtime and Anaheim won their ninth consecutive home opener, over Utah.
Clayton Keller put Utah ahead 4-3 with 9:10 to play in regulation, but Pavel Mintyukov tied it for Anaheim with 5:05 left.
Carlsson, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 draft, then converted a pass from Troy Terry for the first goal of his second NHL season.
Robby Fabbri scored his first goal since joining Anaheim, and Terry got his second goal of the season. Lukas Dostal made 26 saves.
Keller and Barrett Hayton both scored their fourth goals in five games this season for Utah. Jack McBain and Michael Kesselring also scored.
Connor Ingram stopped 29 shots for Utah, which dropped to 3-1-1 in the finale of a four-game road trip.
