The Pittsburgh Penguins kept up the pressure on the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers with a 5-2 home win over New Jersey Sunday. Sidney Crosby scored for the second game in a row and added an assist as the surging Penguins (47-22-6) earned their 14th win in their last 16 to pull a point behind the Rangers with seven games left. Crosby, who scored in Pittsburgh's 8-4 loss to Ottawa Saturday, has two goals and 11 assists in seven games since returning to the ice from concussion-like symptoms. The Devils (42-28-6), sixth in the East, fell behind just a minute into the first period after Chris Kunitz scored for the Penguins. Zach Parise tied the score at 1-1 but the Penguins went back in front on Jordan Staal's goal. Pascal Dupuis' snap shot gave the Penguins a two-goal lead in the second period before Ilya Kovalchuk pulled New Jersey back to 3-2 early in the third. Crosby responded with a wrist shot about a minute later and Evgeni Malkin sealed the game with his 46th goal of the season, taking his NHL-leading points total to 97, with just over 90 seconds left. Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves while the Devils got 23 stops from Martin Brodeur, who will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his NHL debut Monday. Predators 6, Blackhawks 1: Pekka Rinne made 24 saves, and the Nashville Predators ended the Chicago Blackhawks' five-game winning streak with a 6-1 victory. The victory sends the Predators into fourth place in the Western Conference with 96 points, one ahead of Detroit and four more than the sixth-place Blackhawks. Nashville is 4-0-1 against Chicago this season. Nashville's leading scorer Martin Erat, who has tied a career high with 57 points, was scratched with an upper-body injury. In other games it was: St. Louis 4, Phoenix 0; Washington 3, Minnesota 0; Boston 3, Anaheim 2; Edmonton 6, Columbus 3; NY Islanders 3, Panthers 2 (SO)
