Penguins beat Sharks, 5-1

Chris Kunitz scored twice during a four-goal second period, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the visiting San Jose Sharks, 5-1, on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory.

Pascal Dupuis, Jayson Megna, and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which snapped San Jose's six-game winning streak. Sidney Crosby added three assists in his 500th career game to push his point total to an NHL-leading 42.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 44 saves for the Penguins against the league's highest-scoring team. Pittsburgh played without star Evgeni Malkin, scratched after sustaining a lower-body injury during the morning skate.

Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves to lead the New York Rangers to a 3-1 win over the Sabres in Buffalo. Rick Nash, Brad Richards, and Mats Zuccarello scored for New York, which bounced back from a 5-2 loss to Winnipeg on Monday.

Tyler Ennis scored and Ryan Miller made 28 saves in a loss that drops the Sabres to 3-12-1 at the First Niagara Center.

Lundqvist, playing his first game since signing a seven-year, $59.5 million contract, was hardly troubled through 40 minutes, but was outstanding in the third period.

Derek Roy and David Backes scored power-play goals 2 minutes, 31 seconds apart in the second period to lead the host St. Louis Blues to a 5-1 win over the struggling New York Islanders. St. Louis won for the sixth time in eight games. The Islanders have lost eight straight overall and eight in a row on the road.

Max Pacioretty scored his ninth goal in the last nine games and the Canadiens stretched their unbeaten run to nine with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in Montreal.

Tomas Plekanec also scored for Montreal, which jumped a point ahead of Boston into first place in the Atlantic Division, although the Bruins have two games in hand.

Martin St. Louis scored two goals, and Bishop won his 15th game this season as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the visiting Ottawa Senators, 3-1.

Trevor Smith scored at 4:18 of overtime to help the Toronto Maple Leafs end a five-game skid with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Dallas Stars. The Maple Leafs won for the first time since Nov. 23 despite being outshot for the 10th consecutive game, this time 50-24.

Marco Scandella's slap shot with 1:48 left lifted the Minnesota Wild to a 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in St. Paul, Minn. The Wild raised their home record to 12-3-2 and handed the Blackhawks their first loss in their last seven road games.

- Associated Press