Erik Karlsson scored from the top of the slot at 1:40 of overtime Thursday as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the visiting Detroit Red Wings 6-5 to move into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Sidney Crosby had a legacy night for the Penguins, moving past Phil Esposito into 10th on the NHL’s all-time scoring with 1,591 points. Crosby finished with a goal and two assists, reaching 1,000 assists in his career.
Bryan Rust added a goal and two assists and Drew O’Connor, Kris Letang and Jeff Carter also scored for the Penguins (37-30-12, 86 points), who have a 10-game point streak (7-0-3).
Pittsburgh goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 25 saves.
Lucas Raymond had a hat trick and an assist, Dylan Larkin contributed a goal and two assists and Jeff Petry scored for the Red Wings (38-32-9, 85 points).
Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon made 21 saves, and Alex DeBrincat notched three assists.
O’Connor gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 2:40 of the first. Rust, from the right circle, got the puck to O’Connor, who stuffed the puck under Lyon’s pads.
Raymond tied it 59 seconds later. DeBrincat took the puck off Letang in the right circle, and Raymond scored on DeBrincat’s rebound.
At 15:09 of the first, Letang gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead on a wrister from the slot off the rush.
Raymond struck again off a give-and-go with DeBrincat with 13.8 seconds left in the second to tie it 2-2.
Crosby’s tap-in goal off a feed from Rust at 7:58 of the second put Pittsburgh up 3-2.
Rust flipped the puck in off the crossbar from the slot to make it 4-2 at 12:44 of the second.
Petry’s slapshot from the top of the right circle made it through traffic to close it to 4-3 with 35.8 seconds left in the second.
At 3:32 of the third, Carter scored a short-handed goal from the bottom of the right circle to make it 5-3.
Larkin closed it to 5-4 at 12:56 of the third with a shot over Nedeljkovic’s pad, and Raymond scored from point blank to tie it at 14:53.
–Field Level Media
