COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets made it 12 straight wins Friday night, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 to maintain the best record in the NHL.
Columbus, improved to 23-5-4 -- its best start in franchise history -- and has not lost since Nov. 26. Montreal, which outshot Columbus 37-24, fell to 21-9-4.
The win was a league-leading 20th for goalie Sergei Bobvrosky, who kept Columbus in the game despite an apathetic third period in which the Blue Jackets took just five shots.
Sam Gagner put Columbus on the board at 17:50 of the first period, 16 seconds into a Canadiens bench minor for too many men on the ice. It was his 15th goal on the season and sixth on the power play.
The Jackets made it 2-0 with Brandon Saad's 13th goal of the season, just 1:22 into the second period (see full recap).
Crosby scores league-leading 24th goal in win over Devils
PITTSBURGH -- Sidney Crosby scored his NHL-leading 24th goal and the Pittsburgh Penguins bounced back from their worst performance of the season with a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.
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Chad Ruhwedel got the first goal of his career for Pittsburgh. Eric Fehr and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguins, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves to win for the first time in three starts.
The Penguins improved to 8-0-1 in their last nine home games while offering an immediate response after getting crushed 7-1 in Columbus on Thursday.
Kyle Palmieri scored for the Devils, who lost for the eighth time in nine games. Cory Schneider stopped 35 shots but received little help in front of him.
Wild light up Lundqvist in win over Rangers
NEW YORK -- Mikko Koivu, Nino Niederreiter and Marco Scandella scored in a 5-minute span early in the second period, and the Minnesota Wild beat the New York Rangers 7-4 on Friday night for their franchise-record 10th straight win.
Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Matt Dumba and Charlie Coyle also scored for the Wild (21-8-4), who chased Henrik Lundqvist with four goals on 13 shots.
Coyle added three assists, while Koivu and Zucker had three points apiece. Eric Staal (two assists) and Granlund both finished with two points.
Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves in his seventh start of the season. His most notable stop was a diving, sprawling, glove save on a loose puck in the blue paint 6 1/2 minutes into the third period.
While the Wild are surging, New York dropped to 23-12-1 with its second consecutive loss in regulation.
Chris Kreider scored twice for the Rangers, who also got goals from Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan.
