Malkin Gives Penguins 4-3 Win Over Kings

Evgeni Malkin's first goal put him in some rare company. His second was even more important. Malkin scored a power-play goal in overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 victory over the Los

Thursday, November 2nd 2006, 6:28 am

By: News On 6

Evgeni Malkin's first goal put him in some rare company. His second was even more important. Malkin scored a power-play goal in overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.

Malkin slapped in a loose puck from the slot 2:45 into the extra period to give the Penguins their fifth straight victory. The winner came with the Kings' Mattias Norstrom in the penalty box for tripping.

Malkin also scored in the first period, beating Dan Cloutier with a wrist shot, to become the first NHL player in 89 years with goals in his first six games. The 20-year-old Russian joined Joe Malone, Newsy Lalonde and Cy Denneny, who each scored in their first six games during the NHL's inaugural season in 1917-18.

``Malkin's contribution has been huge and I feel pretty fortunate to play with him,'' said Sidney Crosby, who had assists on both of Malkin's goals and the tying goal by Noah Welch in the third period.

In other NHL games, it was: Dallas 4, St. Louis 1; the New York Rangers 4, Anaheim 3 in overtime; Carolina 5, Atlanta 2; Colorado 5, Columbus 3; Toronto 4, Tampa Bay 2; Detroit 3, Calgary 2; and Nashville 5, Edmonton 3.

Pittsburgh improved to 4-0 on the road this season, and won in Los Angeles for the first time since January 1999.

Jordan Staal also had his fifth goal of the season for the Penguins.

Dustin Brown, Rob Blake and Mike Cammalleri had the Kings' goals

``We did some simple things tonight that were wrong and it cost us in the end,'' Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford said. ``We're still growing as a team. There isn't any fault in the effort, the effort was definitely there.''

Stars 4, Blues 1

Eric Lindros scored two goals, Mike Modano added a goal and an assist and Dallas beat St. Louis to get off to the best start in franchise history.

Marty Turco stopped 23 shots and Jussi Jokinen had a goal and an assist for Dallas (10-2). The Stars' previous best 12-game mark was 9-2-1 in 1996-97 and 1982-83.

Keith Tkachuk scored and Curtis Sanford stopped 27 shots for the visiting Blues (3-5-3).

Rangers 4, Ducks 3, OT

Jaromir Jagr scored on a power play with 1:51 left in overtime and Brendan Shanahan had a goal and two assists for visiting New York.

Blair Betts and Petr Prucha also scored for the Rangers and Kevin Weekes made 30 saves in his second start of the season.

Chris Pronger and Ryan Getzlaf scored unassisted goals 83 seconds apart in the second period for Anaheim and Teemu Selanne ended a 10-game goal drought.

Anaheim (9-0-4) is one of two teams that has yet to lose in regulation. The Ducks earned a point for the 13th straight game, breaking the previous club record set during the 1996-97 season.

Hurricanes 5, Thrashers 2

Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour scored two goals apiece, Cam Ward made 40 saves and visiting Carolina beat Atlanta again.

The Thrashers outshot the Hurricanes 42-18, but were turned away time after time by Ward.

Whitney's second goal gave Carolina a 4-1 lead and prompted Thrashers coach Bob Hartley to yank Kari Lehtonen with 4:51 left in the second period. He stopped only nine of 13 shots.

Marian Hossa had his NHL-leading 11th goal and Vitaly Vishnevski also scored for Atlanta.

Avalanche 5, Blue Jackets 3

At Columbus, Ohio, Jose Theodore made 19 of his 41 saves in the third period to help Colorado hold on.

Wojtek Wolski, Brett McLean, Joe Sakic, Mark Rycroft and Brad Richardson scored for the AValanche, who have won five of their last seven.

Sergei Fedorov, Fredrik Modin and David Vyborny scored for Columbus. Pascal Leclaire made 17 stops for the Blue Jackets.

Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 2

Ian White scored a tiebreaking power-play goal midway through the third period to lead visiting Toronto.

White picked up a loose puck off a deflected pass by Matt Stajan and scored from in close to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead with 8:17 left. He hadn't scored a goal in his previous 22 games.

Hal Gill got Toronto even at 2 at 1:51 of the third. The goal snapped a 26-game goal-scoring drought and gave him 100 career points. Alexei Ponikarovsky had an empty-net goal with 1:20 to play.

Tomas Kaberle scored his fifth goal in the past three games for the Leafs.

Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier had the Lightning goals.

Red Wings 3, Flames 2

At Detroit, Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom scored 79 seconds apart in the first period for the Red Wings.

Dominik Hasek made 13 saves and Brett Lebda also scored for Detroit, which won its fourth straight game.

Dion Phaneuf and Andrew Ference got the goals for Calgary, which lost its third in a row. Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 31 shots.

Predators 5, Oilers 3

Paul Kariya had three assists and Nashville stopped Edmonton's six-game home winning streak.

Vernon Fiddler, Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Scottie Upshall and David Legwand scored for the Predators, winners of six consecutive road games and four straight overall. Chris Mason made 22 saves.

Ales Hemsky, Ryan Smyth and Marc-Andre Bergeron had goals for the Oilers. Dwayne Roloson stopped 27 shots for the Oilers.