The Pittsburgh Penguins and visiting New York Rangers have met just once this season entering their game Sunday, but they figure to get very familiar with each other very quickly.

Sunday’s game will be the first of three meetings between the Metropolitan Division teams in a span of seven days — they also will play in New York on Thursday and Saturday.

The Penguins won the only game between them to this point, 3-2 at home on Dec. 20.

The three head-to-head matchups this week could help define how the Metropolitan stacks up at the end of the season. Pittsburgh, which currently holds the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, sits seven points behind the Rangers, who are third in the division.

The Penguins are 6-1-1 in their past eight games; the Rangers are 4-5-1 in their past 10.

Pittsburgh shook up all four of its forward lines Saturday for a 5-1 win at home against the Philadelphia Flyers. That was in part because newly acquired center Nick Bonino is out week-to-week after having a procedure for a lacerated kidney he suffered during a game Thursday.

But it also was something calculated.

“We’re playing a lot of really important games, and we have a lot of games in a short period of time,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We need four lines to get this done here, and so we put combinations together (Saturday) that we thought gave us balance throughout the lineup, that we could utilize guys that could play to their strengths in different situations.”

That it did, as five different players, all forwards, scored against Philadelphia. Jason Zucker was one of them, and he, has goals in three straight games and eight goals over the past seven games.

It’s not clear whether Pittsburgh will stick with its newly configured lines against the Rangers, but there seems little reason to make significant changes overnight.

“It’s a deep team, and every line can score,” said another newly acquired Penguins forward, Mikael Granlund, who had a goal and an assist Saturday for his first points with his new club.

While Pittsburgh is 2-0-1 three games into a five-game homestand, New York has been strong on the road this season. After a 2-1 overtime win Saturday at Buffalo, the Rangers are 20-8-5 away from home.

Winger Patrick Kane, acquired in one of the bigger moves in the NHL leading up to the trade deadline, has his first three points with his new team over the past two games, including the tying goal Saturday in his hometown of Buffalo.

While Pittsburgh scored three goals in the third period to put away the Flyers, the Rangers were not thrilled with their effort against Buffalo despite the win.

“Late in the (third) period like that of a 1-1 hockey game, to give (up strong) chances, it’s not acceptable for our group,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “A lot of guys … should be thankful Igor (Shesterkin, the goalie) made those saves for them.”

The Penguins probably can expect to face backup Rangers goaltender Jaroslav Halak after Shesterkin played against Buffalo.

Conversely, Pittsburgh started backup Casey DeSmith against Philadelphia and seems likely to go with Tristan Jarry on Sunday.

–Field Level Media

Garnet Hathaway scored with 6:06 remaining in regulation as the Boston Bruins overcame an early two-goal deficit to down the visiting Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Saturday afternoon, becoming the fastest team to 50 wins in NHL history.

The Bruins reached 50 wins in 64 games, bettering the mark of 66 shared by the 1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.

Hathaway’s first goal as a Bruin capped a strong overall performance by Boston’s fourth line, as he drove hard to the net and buried the rebound of an A.J. Greer shot that popped out to the left crease.

Hampus Lindholm and Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston, which bounced back from a Thursday loss that broke a 10-game win streak. Boston’s Linus Ullmark made 29 saves, including 15 in the third period. Andrew Copp and Alex Chiasson scored for the Red Wings, who fell to 1-6-1 in their last eight games. Magnus Hellberg stopped 35 Bruins shots.

Lightning 3, Blackhawks 1

Brayden Point scored the game-winning goal — his second of the game — with 59.7 seconds left in a victory over visiting Chicago, but Tampa Bay lost star center Steven Stamkos to an injury.

Point, who has 11 goals in the past 11 games, extended his career-high mark to 43 this season by blistering a shot from the high slot off a pass from Nikita Kucherov for the winner. Brandon Hagel scored his 23rd goal of the season into an empty net with two seconds remaining. Taylor Raddysh scored a goal for Chicago, and Petr Mrazek was strong in net with 34 saves.

In a largely uneventful first period, the news became bad for the home side with just under three minutes remaining. Stamkos, 33, injured his left leg after getting fallen on by a Blackhawks player and getting up awkwardly during his sixth shift. As the team’s captain regained his feet, his left knee buckled. The two-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner then clutched the knee, left for the tunnel and headed to the dressing room.

Stars 4, Kraken 3 (OT)

Miro Heiskanen scored at 3:26 of overtime as Dallas rallied for a victory against host Seattle.

That came after the Stars’ Joe Pavelski tallied at 18:50 of the third period to tie the score with the Dallas net empty and an extra attacker on the ice. Roope Hintz and Mason Marchment also scored for Dallas, which improved to 6-1-1 in its past eight games. Goaltender Jake Oettinger made 28 saves.

Jordan Eberle, Ryan Donato and Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for Seattle, which lost for just the second time in its past seven games (5-1-1). Vince Dunn added two assists. Philipp Grubauer stopped 21 of 25 shots.

Predators 2, Kings 1 (SO)

Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves and stopped all three attempts in a shootout to help visiting Nashville to a victory against Los Angeles.

Tommy Novak scored in regulation and Matt Duchene had the lone goal in the shootout for the Predators, who improved to 6-2-1 in their past nine games.

Mikey Anderson scored and Pheonix Copley made 29 saves for the Kings, who had their season-long, five-game winning streak snapped in the opener of a seven-game homestand.

Colorado 3, Arizona 2 (OT)

Cale Makar scored 1:38 into overtime, Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist and the Avalanche beat the Coyotes in Denver.

Denis Malgin also scored, Mikko Rantanen had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 18 shots for the Avalanche.

MacKinnon set a franchise record with a goal in his ninth consecutive home game. Clayton Keller and Jack McBain each had a goal and Connor Ingram made 41 saves for Arizona, which was held without a shot in the third period and overtime.

Jets 5, Panthers 4 (OT)

Mark Scheifele scored two goals – including the game-winner with 28 seconds left in overtime – as Winnipeg defeated host Florida in Sunrise, Fla.

Vladislav Namestnikov also scored twice and added one assist for Winnipeg. The Jets also got one goal and two assists from Nikolaj Ehlers, 44 saves by Connor Hellebuyck, three assists by Kyle Connor and two helpers by Blake Wheeler. Scheifele, who has a team-high 38 goals, rebounded his own shot for the winner past Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (22 saves).

Florida, which had its season-high-tying, three-game win streak snapped, got two goals from Matthew Tkachuk and one each from Sam Reinhart and Marc Staal. Tkachuk has 30 goals, second-best on the team behind Carter Verhaeghe (32). The Panthers got two assists each from Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov.

Maple Leafs 7, Oilers 4

John Tavares had two goals and an assist and host Toronto came back to score five straight goals to defeat Edmonton.

Noel Acciari added two goals and Mitchell Marner had a goal and three assists for the Maple Leafs, who were playing their first game after a 3-2 trip. William Nylander and Auston Matthews each had a goal and an assist. Matt Murray made 24 saves.

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who completed a 2-2 road trip. Mattias Ekholm, Evander Kane and Leon Draisaitl also scored. Stuart Skinner stopped 31 shots.

Golden Knights 4, Hurricanes 0

Jonathan Quick made 33 saves for his second shutout of the season to lead Vegas over host Carolina in Raleigh, N.C.

Quick, obtained at the trade deadline from Los Angeles, improved to 3-0-0 with the Golden Knights with the 58th shutout of his career, moving him into a tie with John Roach for 21st place on the NHL’s all-time shutout list. Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Paul Cotter and Brett Howden scored goals.

Frederik Andersen stopped 20 of 23 shots for Metro Division-leading Carolina, which suffered just its eighth regulation home loss (23-8-2) of the season.

Rangers 2, Sabres 1

Artemi Panarin scored a power-play goal with 2:58 remaining in overtime as New York beat host Buffalo.

The Rangers controlled possession for the entire overtime and gained a power play with 3:48 remaining when Mika Zibanejad drew a hooking penalty on Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

Jeff Skinner scored for Buffalo, which has lost four games in a row but played significantly better defensively than Thursday’s 10-4 home loss to the Dallas Stars.

Devils 3, Canadiens 1

Nico Hischier collected one goal and one assist to lead visiting New Jersey to a victory over Montreal.

Nathan Bastian and Tomas Tatar also scored for the Devils, who are on a 6-1-1 run that has them two points back of the Carolina Hurricanes in the chase for top spot in the Metropolitan Division. Dawson Mercer collected one assist to run his point streak to 12 games. It is the longest point streak in franchise history for a player under 22. Goalie Akira Schmid made 23 saves.

Denis Gurianov scored for the injury-plagued Canadiens, who are winless in six games, five of them by one goal, and near the bottom of the league standings. Goalie Jake Allen stopped 34 shots in a strong outing that gave his club a chance.

Penguins 5, Flyers 1

Jake Guentzel and Mikael Granlund each had a goal and an assist as Pittsburgh downed visiting Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan became the 40th NHL coach to reach 400 career wins (400-234-15-87). Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Jason Zucker also scored, and Marcus Pettersson had two assists for the Penguins, who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games.

Kieffer Bellows scored for the Flyers, who have lost three straight. Goaltender Carter Hart made 27 saves. Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith made 31 saves.

Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2

Jordan Kyrou scored a three-goal hat trick as visiting St. Louis defeated Columbus.

Sammy Blais had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who won for just the third time in their last 11 games.

St. Louis got two-point games from Brandon Saad (goal, assist), Brayden Schenn (two assists) and Robert Thomas (two assists). Thomas Greiss made 37 saves to earn the victory. Patrik Laine and Boone Jenner scored for the Blue Jackets, who lost their fourth straight game. Johnny Gaudreau had two assists and Michael Hutchinson made 19 saves.

Capitals 5, Islanders 1

Anthony Mantha, Nic Dowd and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the third period for visiting Washington, which bolstered its playoff hopes by pulling away for a win over New York in Elmont, N.Y.

Dylan Strome and T.J. Oshie scored in the first period for the Capitals, who won for just the fourth time in 13 games (4-8-1). Washington is five points behind the Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the race for Eastern Conference wild-card berths. Goalie Darcy Kuemper made 18 saves.

Pierre Engvall scored for the Islanders, who had their three-game winning streak snapped. Goalie Semyon Varlamov recorded 22 saves.

Wild 5, Sharks 2

Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Johansson, Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy all collected one goal and one assist to lead visiting Minnesota to a victory over San Jose.

Frederick Gaudreau also scored for the Wild, who are on a 10-0-2 roll and sit two points behind the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Central Division. Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves, 18 of them in the first period, while Ryan Hartman and John Klingberg both posted two assists.

Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl both netted one goal and one assist for the Sharks, who have one win in nine games (1-7-1) and sit at the bottom of the Western Conference. Goalie James Reimer stopped 24 shots.

Canucks 5, Senators 2

Andrei Kuzmenko scored two goals and Vancouver defeated visiting Ottawa for its fourth straight win.

J.T. Miller and Nils Aman each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. Dakota Joshua had two assists and Thatcher Demko made 18 saves.

Claude Giroux and Nick Holden scored third-period goals for the Senators, who have lost two of their past three games after winning five straight. Tim Stutzle had two assists and Mads Sogaard made 25 saves for the Senators.

–Field Level Media

Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves and stopped all three attempts in a shootout to help the visiting Nashville Predators to a 2-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.

Tommy Novak scored in regulation and Matt Duchene had the lone goal in the shootout for the Predators, who improved to 6-2-1 in their past nine games.

Mikey Anderson scored and Pheonix Copley made 29 saves for the Kings, who had their season-long, five-game winning streak snapped in the opener of a seven-game homestand.

The Kings took a 1-0 lead at 9:32 of the first period.

Gabriel Vilardi won a faceoff in the Nashville zone and the puck was briefly pinned against the wall before Alex Iafallo sprung it loose with a short pass to Vilardi in the right circle.

Vilardi spun and backhanded a pass to Anderson coming down the middle, and Anderson scored with a wrist shot.

Nashville went on its first power play when Iafallo was called for tripping against Ryan McDonagh with a minute left in the opening period.

After a faceoff in the Los Angeles zone, Cody Glass passed the puck back to Novak at the left point. He took a couple strides toward the Kings net and sent a wrist shot past Copley for his 10th goal of the season, becoming the sixth player for the Predators to reach double figures in goals this season.

The Predators went on their third power play at 13:20 of the third period after Adrian Kempe pulled off Jeremy Lauzon’s helmet for a roughing penalty. Copley made five saves on the penalty kill, his best came 16 seconds into the man advantage on a one-timer from Roman Josi from the right circle.

Nashville killed a power play that began with 2:37 left in the third period.

Los Angeles forward Kevin Fiala, who leads the team with 68 points, missed the game with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day. He was injured in a 5-2 win at the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.

–Field Level Media

Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Johansson, Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy all collected one goal and one assist to lead the visiting Minnesota Wild to a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

Frederick Gaudreau also scored for the Wild, who are on a 10-0-2 roll and sit two points behind the Dallas Stars for the top spot in the Central Division. Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves, 18 of them in the first period, while Ryan Hartman and John Klingberg both posted two assists.

Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl both netted one goal and one assist for the Sharks, who have one win in nine games (1-7-1) and sit at the bottom of the Western Conference. Goalie James Reimer stopped 24 shots.

Without the club’s leading scorer, Kirill Kaprizov, the Wild need players to elevate their game, and they saw that wish granted early when Spurgeon opened the scoring at the 1:44 mark. Upon joining a rush, Spurgeon took a pass from Zuccarello as he raced into the open slot and snapped a 17-game goal drought by potting his 10th goal of the season.

Couture’s power-play goal — a rebound tally for his 23rd of the campaign — just past the midway point of the second period drew San Jose even. With his assist, Erik Karlsson set a franchise record with his 84th point of the season. The Sharks had just one power-play goal in the previous 12 games (1-for-30)

Gaudreau’s power-play goal with 1:57 remaining in the second period restored the Wild lead. With Evgeny Svechnikov in the penalty box for slashing Fleury, Gaudreau converted a rebound for his 13th of the season.

Johansson’s 14th of the season, a deflection goal 30 seconds into the third period, held up for the game-winning goal.

Hertl’s rebound power-play goal, his 19th of the season and 200th of his career, made it a one-goal game at 8:36 of the third period.

However, Zuccarello restored the two-goal edge with a man-advantage marker of his own, his 21st goal of the season, with nine minutes remaining in regulation.

Boldy’s empty-net goal with 1:57 on the clock, his 18th of the season, rounded out the scoring.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Bruins made history on Saturday with a hard-fought home victory against Detroit on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins will look for back-to-back victories over the Red Wings when they visit Detroit on Sunday.

The Bruins became the fastest team in NHL history to reach 50 wins with their 3-2 victory. Boston got to the half-century mark in 64 games. The previous record of 66 games was shared by the 1995-96 Red Wings and 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.

Garnet Hathaway scored on a rebound at 13:54 of the third period as Boston rallied from a two-goal deficit.

“Fifty wins is great. And it’s kind of a testament to how hard this team has continued to work throughout the year,” Hathaway said. “But I think guys want 51, you know? Guys are excited to play this team tomorrow already.”

Detroit, which has lost seven of its last eight games, scored twice in the first five minutes on Andrew Copp’s shorthanded goal and Alex Chiasson’s power play tally.

The Bruins tied it on second-period goals by Hampus Lindholm and Patrice Bergeron.

Boston had the first 12 shots on goal in the period.

“[Detroit] pushed hard in the beginning of the game, and I thought in the second period, we played our best hockey,” Bruins forward A.J. Greer said. “Bruins hockey; it was just relentless and offensive driven, connected.”

Boston lost at home to Edmonton 3-2 on Thursday night. The Bruins avoided back-to-back home losses for the first time this season.

“We never want to lose two in a row. We showed that today,” goaltender Linus Ullmark said. “We came out a little slow. They came out hot as well. Give them credit, they really came here to play in that first period and we just weren’t ready for it. But we took a breather in between the first and second, and we told each other we’ve got to ramp it up a little bit. And then we absolutely dominated them in the second.”

The Red Wings lamented a two-goal swing in the second period. Dylan Larkin appeared to give his team a 3-1 lead but his goal was waved off because he was called for interference seconds earlier. Bergeron scored on the subsequent Bruins’ power play.

“That’s a tough swing there, you think we go up 3-1 and they call a penalty late, and not the ref that was close, it was called on the back side,” Larkin said. “They score on the penalty kill and it’s a tough swing. But we responded well and had a good third period. We just came up short. But it was a good effort, we battled a lot out there, and a lot was going against us.”

Detroit coach Derek Lalonde lamented four penalties called against his team in the first two periods.

“The second period burned us,” Lalonde said. “We had a real good first, and I liked our third. But the second, the penalties, our four penalties and it’s just too much on our group and gives their top guys too much momentum. It’s unfortunate because we had a real good opportunity today.”

–Field Level Media

Andrei Kuzmenko scored two goals and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the visiting Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Saturday night for their fourth straight win.

J.T. Miller and Nils Aman each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks. Dakota Joshua had two assists and Thatcher Demko made 18 saves.

Claude Giroux and Nick Holden scored third-period goals for the Senators, who have lost two of their past three games after winning five straight. Tim Stutzle had two assists and Mads Sogaard made 25 saves for the Senators.

The Senators are six points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, but they have played three fewer games.

Kuzmenko gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 15:05 of the first period when he received a pass in the slot from Miller, made a move and scored on a backhand shot.

The Canucks made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 4:26 of the second period. After an Ottawa turnover, Miller entered the zone 2-on-1 with Aman, took the return pass on a give-and-go and beat Sogaard.

Aman increased the lead to 3-0 at 10:27. Joshua carried in along the right boards, cut toward the net and fed across the slot to Aman for the easy tip in.

Vancouver added to its cushion at 6:50 of the third period when Sheldon Dries took a drop pass from Joshua on a 3-on-2 rush and scored on wrist shot from between the faceoff circles to make it 4-0.

Ottawa pulled within 4-1 at 13:39 of the third period, when Giroux knocked in the rebound of Thomas Chabot’s shot.

Holden made it 4-2 at 15:44, scoring on a wrist shot through traffic from the left faceoff circle, but Kuzmenko scored into an empty net with 15 seconds remaining for the 5-2 final.

The Canucks were 1-for-6 on the power play, while the Senators were 0-for-3.

–Field Level Media