Jordan Staal’s eighth goal of the season broke a 2-2 tie in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2.
Trailing 2-1 in the third period, the Canes turned things around with two goals to pull away with the win.
The Penguins had won their last seven games.
Brady Skjei tied the game first at 8:13 before Staal’s game-winning goal just over five minutes later.
Derek Stepan had given Carolina the lead, scoring the first goal in a game for the fifth straight time, the longest such streak for the club since its seven straight games last February and March.
Rickard Rakell, in his 600th career game, and Brock McGinn, who scored a first goal against his former team, provided the Penguins’ reply.
Goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves for a point in a ninth straight game (7-0-2) to surpass Alex Nedeljkovic (7-0-1 in 2020-21) for the longest streak by a rookie keeper in the history of the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise.
Two of Kochetkov’s nine wins this season have come against the Penguins.
Karlsson at 700 points… the Sharks dominated
San Jose Sharls defenseman Erik Karlsson reached a major NHL milestone by adding his 700th point to his record on Sunday against the Calgary Flames.
It was, however, one of the few moments of celebration for the Sharks, who lost by the score of 5-2.
Elias Lindholm was the main architect of the Flames victory, thanks to his evening of three points, including two goals in the space of 19 seconds, in the first minute of play of the third period.
Lindholm has had at least one point in his last eight meetings.
Tyler Toffoli, Milan Lucic – scorer of his first goal of the year – and Dillon Dube also scored for Calgary (14-12-6), while Nazem Kadri provided two assists.
Earlier in the evening, “EK65” became the 27th defenseman in history to join the select 700-point club, collecting an assist on Timo Meier’s net on the power play in the first period.
The 32-year-old Swede, who also helped set up Tomas Hertl’s goal in the third period, has 165 goals and 536 assists in 871 games on the Bettman League with the Ottawa Senators and San Jose.
Only two backs from Sweden had achieved this feat before Karlsson: Nicklas Lidström (1142 pts) and the late Börje Salming (787).
Kaapo Kahkonen flinched five times on 25 shots for the Flames. During this time, Jacob Markström was tested 27 times.
The Flames’ No. 1 goalkeeper signed his first win in almost a month, since November 21, against the Philadelphia Flyers,
David Quinn’s squad are in all sorts of trouble at the Shark Tank, as evidenced by their 3-9-5 record in front of their fans.
For the entire season, San Jose is 10-17-6, earning it seventh and second-to-last place in the Pacific Division, five points ahead of Anaheim.
The two clubs will meet again on Tuesday, once again at the SAP Center.
The Kraken finds the path victorious
Jared McCann beat David Rittich with a wrist shot into the top corner with 4:32 to go, and it was the game-winning goal for the Seattle Kraken, who beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-0. 2.
The Kraken started the third period late with a goal, but in the 16th second of play of the last third, Ryan Donato brought the counters to zero by redirecting a slapshot from Yanni Gourde.
Winnipeg’s power play unit (20-10-1) had allowed it to prioritize 1-0, then 2-1, when Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois deceived the vigilance of Philipp Grubauer .
Defenseman Josh Morrissey assisted on both goals for the Manitoba squad, giving him 31 assists for the entire season.
Seattle (17-10-3) snapped a two-game regulation losing streak.
Dave Hakstol’s men made 35 shots on Rittich’s cage, while Rick Bowness’ men were much more discreet, with a total of 17 shots.
