PITTSBURGH: Brenden Morrow scored two goals for the second straight game and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 on Wednesday night to move closer to clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Brandon Sutter added two goals for Pittsburgh, and newly acquired Jarome Iginla and Doug Murray also scored for the Penguins, who had little trouble with the Canadiens despite playing without injured stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 31 shots and Pittsburgh dominated in racing to a quick 4-0 lead.
Brian Gionta, Alex Galchenyuk, Gabriel Dumont and Andrei Markov scored for the reeling Canadiens, who have lost three straight. Peter Budaj started in goal but was pulled after stopping just six of the nine shots he faced in the first period.
Carey Price relieved and allowed three goals on 20 shots, absorbing the loss.
Flames 3, Red Wings 2: Steve Begin took advantage of a pair of third-period blunders by Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard (14 saves) to score his third and fourth goals of the year, and Calgary held on to hand the playoff-hopeful visitors a loss.
Lee Stempniak also scored for the Flames, who won all three games against the Red Wings this season.
Gustav Nyquist and Johan Franzen scored for Detroit.
Blue Jackets 3, Ducks 2: Fedor Tyutin scored 2:19 into overtime, and Columbus moved into eighth place in the Western Conference with a victory in Anaheim.
Blake Comeau and Matt Calvert also scored for the Blue Jackets, who jumped 2 points ahead of Detroit, and within 1 point of seventh-place St. Louis. Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves.
