NEW YORK -- Sidney Crosby scored on a deflection at 4:30 of overtime and the surging Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 3-2 Sunday night in a potential first-round playoff preview.
Matt Cullen and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins, who have won eight of nine. Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves.
Eric Staal scored twice for New York, which had won three straight. Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast assisted on both of Staal's goals. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 shots.
Derick Brassard was called for high-sticking with 1.4 seconds left in regulation to give Pittsburgh a power play in the extra period. But the Rangers killed it off before Kris Letang's wrist shot from the point ricocheted in off Crosby in front (see full recap).
Rask's 2 goals propel Hurricanes by Devils
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Victor Rask came up big for the Carolina Hurricanes as they continue their desperate push for a playoff berth.
Rask scored twice for the first multigoal game of his career, reaching 20 in a season for the first time as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 on Sunday.
Carolina is within four points of a playoff spot with six games left, but Philadelphia has two games in hand and Detroit one.
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"I look at it as three of four points this weekend," said Hurricanes coach Bill Peters, whose team lost to the visiting New York Islanders 4-3 in overtime Saturday night. "We have a really good record with our back-to-backs. That's some resiliency and pride in these guys. We show up and compete. We started on time tonight, which was encouraging," (see full recap).
Blackhawks beat Canucks to clinch playoff spot
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Andrew Ladd scored the go-ahead goal with 2:27 left in the third period and the Chicago Blackhawks clinched their eighth straight playoff berth with a 3-2 victory over the skidding Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
Jonathan Toews stickhandled into the Canucks zone before dropping a pass in the high slot to Ladd, who fired in a one-timer for his 23rd goal this season and sixth in 13 games with Chicago.
Ladd was coming off a three-point night against Calgary on Saturday in which he scored two goals and added an assist.
Trevor van Riemsdyk had two assists for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Tomas Fleischmann and Teuvo Teravainen also scored to help the Blackhawks improve to 44-25-7 (see full recap).