Pittsburgh Wins 10th Consecutive Game, 7-3

The Pittsburgh Penguins like being in the NHL record books. They have Colorado’s season-best 12-game winning streak, which ended less than a week ago, in their sights after winning their 10th in a row on Monday night with a 7-3 victory over the Washington Capitals at Pittsburgh.

The Penguins already own the record for the longest streak in league history with 17 consecutive victories in 1993. This is their longest streak since.

Monday’s victory put them only two points behind idle Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division. Before the streak, the Penguins were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, unsure if they’d make the playoffs.

“This team has always been good, has always had good players and great scorers like Mario [Lemieux] and Jaromir [Jagr] and we’re trying to keep that going,” the Penguins’ Alexei Kovalev said. “You need a lot of talent to do that [win 10 in a row].”

N.Y. Rangers 7, Nashville 4--Wayne Gretzky, who hasn’t scored a goal since tying Gordie Howe for the most goals in a combined NHL--WHA career on Feb. 4, failed to get one at Nashville, Tenn.

But he did have five assists and the Rangers ended a three-game losing streak.

Dallas 4, Edmonton 1--With his Hall-of-Fame father, Bobby, making his first visit to Dallas and watching from the press box, Brett Hull scored twice in the game’s first two minutes and 37 seconds and the Stars cruised past the Oilers.

Brett, who has 23 goals this season, has 577 for his career, only 33 behind his dad.

Buffalo 3, Carolina 2--Michael Peca’s goal five minutes into the third period was the game winner, and Dominik Hasek made 36 saves as the Sabres defeated the Hurricanes at Buffalo, N.Y.

New Jersey 3, Toronto 3--Garry Valk’s soft shot from the left circle with a minute left in the second period, which seemed to catch Devil goalie Martin Brodeur by surprise, gave the Maple Leafs a tie at East Rutherford, N.J.

San Jose 2, Florida 2--Florida’s Ray Whitney scored two goals, including one with 6:17 to play, as the Panthers collected their league-leading 14th tie against the Sharks at Sunrise, Fla.

Ottawa 6, Chicago 2--Alexei Yashin had two goals and an assist and Wade Redden added two goals as the Senators, who had only nine goals in their last six games, won at Kanata, Canada.

St. Louis 8, Vancouver 1--Pierre Turgeon had a goal and two assists and Pavol Demitra had three assists and the Blues ended their five-game home losing streak. The Blues have won eight in a row against the Canucks, who last defeated St. Louis on December 15, 1996.

New York Islanders 3, Tampa Bay 3--Vincent Lecavalier had an assist and scored the game-tying goal with 9:31 left in regulation and the Lightning came from behind for a tie in a battle between the bottom two teams in the Eastern Conference at Uniondale, N.Y.