NHL Sunday: Penguins beat Flyers for 12th straight victory

Elsewhere in the NHL, the Islanders shutout the Panthers, the Capitals and the Rangers finished things in a shootout, and the Ducks suffered a last-minute meltdown against the Red Wings.

Get caught up on Tuesday’s NHL scores with recaps from our network of SB Nation team blogs. Here’s a quick glance at the full night of action:

The Ducks stars were frustrated with the game’s officiating, and let the officials know about it as time wound down. Regardless of how the game was being called, however, this was a bonehead move from three of the team’s best players. They were only down a single goal and had been seriously pressuring the Red Wings, but sunk their own chances with the triple-misconduct.

The lack of discipline by the Ducks also inspired some Twitter mockery from Winging It In Motown:

Stastny left the game early after taking a slapshot to the foot from Canucks defenseman Jason Garrison. Stastny was helped off the ice and wasn’t putting any weight on the injured foot. The exact severity of the injury has yet to be announced by the team.

Stastny entered Sunday as the third-leading scorer for Colorado, with eight goals and eleven assists. He hasn’t missed a game this season for Colorado.

Lundqvist was staggered, but managed to recover just enough to keep the puck out of the net. The period ended with the score still tied at 2 after the Capitals couldn’t convert on this close call.

The Rangers have to be breathing a sigh of relief after this one, both for avoiding the goal-against and for Lundqvist seemingly escaping unscathed. The team entered Sunday in a fierce and crowded battle for the final playoff spot in the East, and losing their starting goalie to injury would have been a terrible blow to their chances of making the postseason.

• Martin Brodeur scores a goal!

• Printable bracket for March Madness

The Flyers sit two points behind the Panthers and face the No. 1 team in the East on Sunday, and haven’t played in nearly a week. Yet a win would thrust the Flyers right back into the conversation for teams battling for playoff positioning, a remarkeable thought considering just how down-and-out the team has been fore most of this season. They’ll need to beat the Penguins however...

4. Will Evgeni Malkin return triumphantly on Sunday?