Malkin has hat trick as Penguins rally past Canucks, 5-4

Evgeni Malkin scored a hat trick to help the Penguins rally to defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4, on Saturday.

Ryan Spooner and Torey Krug, who has gone 21 games without a goal, scored and Jonas Gustavsson stopped both shots in the shootout as the Bruins won for the fourth time in the last five games but only the third time in their last eight home games.

Sidney Crosby had a point in a season-best sixth straight game when he scored an empty net goal. The Devils doubled their lead to 2-0 on the power play when Jacob Josefson scored his second of the season at 15:49 of the second period.

Pittsburgh, who scored three third-period goals in a 5 minute, 44 second stretch, trailed by two goals in seven of their previous 11 games and came back to earn points in six of those.

The Canucks fell to 20-18-11.

Vancouver ended the second poriod with a 2-1 lead, thanks to two goals by Jannik Hansen. He blew down the right side and threw a shot past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury on the stick side from near the right dot. He tied it at 10:22 with his 23rd of the season, a wrist shot from the left circle over Miller’s glove.

And Bryan Rust scored the go-ahead goal less than three minutes after that.

The Penguins’ next game, which had been scheduled for Sunday against the Washington Capitals, was postponed because of a severe snowstorm.

SHARKS 4, WILD 3 (at San Jose) – Joe Pavelski scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:28 to go and San Jose beat Minnesota for its seventh win in eight games. Bo Horvat then made it 3-1 at the six-minute mark of the third period before Pittsburgh responded with four unanswered goals. The Canucks’ team bus couldn’t make it up a hill near Consol Energy Center, forcing players to walk to the arena. Hansen would bury his 14th later in the period, converting a rebound on a shorthanded 2 on 1 break when Derek Dorsett hit the crossbar.

Stempniak scored his second goal of the game when he tipped in a shot from Eric Gelinas at 8:42 of the third period. For example, after dinging the puck off of the post, most of the Penguins looked as if they gave up on the play, allowing Hansen to score an easy goal.

Kris Letang got the only assist on that goal, the first the Penguins have scored with a two-man advantage this season. Penguins F Chris Kunitz was a late scratch after sustaining a lower body injury Thursday against Philadelphia…. Pouliot, a 2012 first-round pick, played 34 games for Pittsburgh last season with two goals and seven points, while Bennett hadn’t played since December 14 against Washington. Vancouver’s Brandon Sutter and Pittsburgh’s Nick Bonino, key players in an off-season trade between the two teams, both missed the game because of injuries…. Canucks G Ryan Miller started for the fifth time in six games after missing a month while injured….