Sports
Penguins energized by power play, Red Wings by new head coach
Dec 29, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Michael Bunting (8) celebrates his goal with the Penguins bench against the New York Islanders during the second period at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images The best way to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins is to stay out of the penalty box. The Penguins’ power play has churned out goals at a high rate in recent games.
They’ll look to collect a road victory in Detroit on Tuesday during the Red Wings’ annual New Year’s Eve game.
Pittsburgh has notched six power-play goals over its last three games. On Sunday, the Penguins converted both opportunities in a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders. That avenged a 6-3 loss to the Islanders the previous day.
Pittsburgh has two productive power-play units, one headed by Sidney Crosby and the other featuring Evgeni Malkin.
“On any given night, one of them could be better than the other one, because we’ve got some talented people on both,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
After a slow start, Michael Bunting has scored at least one goal in the last three games. He contributed a goal and an assist in Sunday’s victory. Over the last 13 games, Bunting has seven goals and seven assists.
“Everyone is playing well, and I find that when the team is having success, individuals are having success as well,” Bunting said. “And it’s going around this whole room and you can see that. We want to keep this going.”
Crosby made franchise history by setting up Bunting’s goal. It was Crosby’s 1,034th career assist, passing Mario Lemieux to become the Penguins’ all-time assists leader and No. 12 in NHL history.
“He makes so many plays on his backhand, he’s just so creative,” Sullivan said. “The accomplishment, the milestone that he’s reached — this is just more evidence of an amazing career. He’s just an elite player.”
The Penguins have gone 10-4-1 since Nov. 27 and will look to cap off December by winning the three-game season series against Detroit. Pittsburgh won the first matchup 6-3 on Oct. 10. The Red Wings pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory on Nov. 13.
Detroit snapped a four-game losing streak and handed Todd McLellan his first victory as head coach by defeating Washington 4-2 on Sunday. McLellan was behind the bench for the second time since replacing Derek Lalonde.
Patrick Kane became the second U.S.-born player to reach 1,300 career points, trailing only Mike Modano’s 1,374. Kane, who had a power-play goal and an assist against the Capitals, is also the fourth active player to reach that milestone, joining Crosby (1,636), Malkin (1,327) and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (1,577).
“Patty Kane got 1,300 points (Sunday), and that gave us energy,” McLellan said. “Those special moments, or events, energize other guys and they get excited.”
Alex DeBrincat scored twice as the Red Wings opened up a 4-1 lead in the first period and held on. They’ll try to build off that performance in their final game of 2024.
“We had good jump right off the bat. But we have to continue to do that and be ready to play each night and we’ll be good,” DeBrincat said. “A lot of it is reset. New coach comes in and gets that energy in the room and forget about what has happened in the past.
“There’s a new start, so it’s good to get that win and, hopefully, we can get some more here soon.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Flyers strike in 3rd to snap Bruins' 8-game point streak
Feb 28, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers left wing Noah Cates (27) reaches for the puck against the Boston Bruins in the first period at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images The Philadelphia Flyers scored back-to-back goals to start the third period and held on to defeat the visiting Boston Bruins 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Travis Konecny and Jamie Drysdale both scored and assisted on each other’s goals for Philadelphia, which has won two of its three games since the Olympic break. Drysdale tallied the eventual game-winner with 8:05 left.
Sean Couturier added an empty-net goal with 55 seconds remaining, Christian Dvorak recorded two assists, and Dan Vladar was excellent with a 26-save performance to help the Flyers win.
Boston’s Charlie McAvoy extended his point streak to nine games with a third-period goal that cut the hosts’ lead to 2-1.
Jeremy Swayman made 14 saves for Boston, which entered on an eight-game point streak (5-0-3).
With the game scoreless through two periods, the Bruins looked to take a 1-0 lead 1:05 into the third as Hampus Lindholm’s point shot beat Vladar, but the goal was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference.
Instead, Konecny scored first at 3:41. After Dvorak’s shot into the zone hit a stanchion behind the net, he recovered the bounce and made a tight backhand feed to his oncoming linemate to bury into an open side of the net.
Drysdale doubled Philadelphia’s lead at 11:55 by slipping down the slot on a Konecny pass and firing an open wrist shot past Swayman’s blocker.
The Bruins found an answer from McAvoy 1:08 later. Pavel Zacha won the faceoff right to Hampus Lindholm, who found his fellow defenseman cutting to the net to make it a 2-1 game.
Swayman followed up that goal by stopping Konecny on a breakaway with 5:36 left, but Boston could not find an equalizer.
Philadelphia had a 7-6 shot advantage in a scoreless first. Swayman made one of his best early saves halfway through as Trevor Zegras fired a turnaround shot from the slot.
Vladar made two close-range stops on Morgan Geekie within the first eight minutes of the second period, including one early in Boston’s second power play. The first stop occurred when David Pastrnak set up Geekie for a one-timer in the slot at the 5:00 mark.
Less than a minute after Vladar’s second stop on Geekie, Swayman returned to the highlight reel at the other end of the ice. Konecny’s wraparound put the puck on goal before Swayman robbed Dvorak with the glove on a rebound effort coming to the doorstep.
After Boston’s first man advantage came up empty, Vladar made another big save as Sean Kuraly separated from the Flyers’ defense for a breakaway with 5:43 left in the second.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Heat rally in 4th quarter to take down Rockets
Feb 28, 2026; Miami, Florida, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) argues with Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) during the first quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images Bam Adebayo posted a double-double, and Andrew Wiggins ignited a fourth-quarter rally after returning from an in-game injury to lead the Miami Heat to a 115-105 victory over the visiting Houston Rockets on Saturday.
Adebayo paired 24 points with 11 rebounds to help the Heat snap a two-game skid. Pelle Larsson (20 points) and Tyler Herro (18) contributed to the balanced scoring attack for the Heat, who also received double-digit efforts from Jaime Jaquez Jr. (14 points) and Kel’el Ware (13 points and a game-high 15 rebounds) off the bench. The Heat shot 50% overall from the floor.
But it was Wiggins, who took an elbow to the jaw from Rockets center Alperen Sengun and needed stitches in his cheek to close the gash, who led a critical fourth-quarter surge. He assisted on a Ware alley-oop and a Larsson 3 to put the Heat ahead 100-92 before his transition dunk resulted in a three-point play and a 111-103 lead with 2:24 remaining.
Wiggins finished with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
Kevin Durant scored a game-high 32 points and added eight assists for the Rockets. Amen Thompson (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Tari Eason (10 points, 11 boards) added double-doubles, while Reed Sheppard chipped in 14 points and five assists for Houston.
The Rockets turned an early run, capped by a Sheppard 3, into a 14-4 lead, only for the Heat to respond with an 8-0 rally. Adebayo hit a 3-pointer to give Miami a 27-26 lead, and the Heat carried a 32-28 advantage into the second quarter after hitting 6 of 13 from beyond the arc in the first.
Miami extended its lead to double digits on a Ware tip-in, and led 41-28 before the Rockets scored their first basket of the second quarter with an Aaron Holiday 3-pointer at the 7:07 mark. That ended a 19-2 run by the Heat and sparked another Houston rally, featuring Sheppard and Durant combining to hit three 3-pointers and tie the game at 48.
The Rockets led 52-51 at the intermission after Miami missed 7 of 8 3-pointers in the second.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Braeden Carrington explodes for 32 points as Wisconsin routs Washington
Feb 28, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Wisconsin Badgers guard Braeden Carrington (0) shoots a three point shot over Washington Huskies guard Zoom Diallo (5) during the second half at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images Braeden Carrington came off the bench Saturday to score a career-high 32 points and Wisconsin knocked down 17 3-pointers to earn a 90-73 Big Ten Conference road win over Washington in Seattle.
Nick Boyd added 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Badgers (20-9, 12-6 Big Ten), while Nolan Winter chipped in 13 points and nine rebounds. Wisconsin canned 44.7 % of its 38 3-point attempts, with Carrington going 9 of 15.
Freshman Hannes Steinbach led the Huskies (14-15, 6-12) with 22 points and 11 rebounds, his 18th double-double of the season and the most by a Big Ten player since Jared Sullinger of Ohio State collected the same total 29 years ago. Zoom Diallo scored 21 points.
Washington made 46% from the field but simply couldn’t mute the Badgers’ potent perimeter game. Bouncing back from an 85-71 upset loss Wednesday night at Oregon, Wisconsin earned a 39-35 edge on the boards and committed only six turnovers.
The final margin flattered the Huskies a bit. The Badgers led by as many as 28 points in the second half and cleared the bench by the time Washington scored the final seven points to make the margin more respectable.
Wisconsin set an early tone by stepping up its defense from the loss at Oregon. It held the Huskies without a field goal for a 6:04 stretch of the first half and opened up a 17-4 lead with 13:28 left when Carrington converted a 3-pointer.
Steinbach made two foul shots with 6:51 left to pull Washington within 22-14 but the Badgers pulled away when Carrington hit a 3-pointer and fed Winter for a layup and a 27-14 cushion.
With Boyd canning a short jumper from the baseline, Wisconsin went into halftime with a 36-21 advantage. The Huskies made only 7 of 28 field goals in the first 20 minutes and were outrebounded 25-17.
Boyd led the charge with 14 points in the half, sinking 7 of 14 shots from the field.
–Field Level Media
Flyers strike in 3rd to snap Bruins' 8-game point streak
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