Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh while Matt Murray stopped 25 shots in his first home start since the Stanley Cup Final. Sidney Crosby was held without a point but helped begin the sequence that set up Sheary for the go-ahead goal.

”Every game we’re down two we still think we have a chance to win,” Sheary said. ”Nothing was different for us tonight.”

Edmonton star Connor McDavid assisted on all three Oiler goals, more than holding his own against Crosby, his childhood idol.

”They’re never out of a game,” McDavid said. ”You can be up 3-1, but they have so much offensive firepower and they can find a way either way, no matter what.”

Martin Jones stopped 24 shots and Brent Burns scored his fifth goal of the season to lead the San Jose Sharks past the Washington Capitals 3-0.

Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Burns had second-period goals for the defending Western Conference champions, who scored only four goals during their three-game slide.

”That was a big win for us, just to kind of right the ship a little bit,” Jones said. ”We’ve had moments where we’ve been good, and today everything kind of came our way.”

Golfer Jack Nicklaus delivered a pregame pep talk that helped inspire Montreal to beat the rival Boston Bruins 3-1.

Carey Price stopped 41 shots and Paul Byron scored the winner with 1:02 left.

Coach Michel Therrien said he got a call before the game from a friend who said Nicklaus was in town and wanted to visit the Bell Centre.

”He asked if (Nicklaus) could visit the dressing room,” Therrien said. ”I thought about it and we came up with the idea of having Jack talk to the players and give them the starting lineup.

”He was amazing. It took the players a few seconds to realize who he was. It was a nice moment.”

Jeff Carter scored twice during a four-goal second period as Los Angeles thumped the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-0.

Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli added goals in the second period and Dustin Brown, Kyle Clifford and Dwight King also scored as Los Angeles won a third straight game.

”As optimistic as everything appears one day and you win three in a row, then you get your lunch fed to you and you’re not competitive and not organized and not prepared,” coach Mike Babcock said. ”It was a humbling experience for our players and myself here in our building.”

James Neal and P.K. Subban each had a goal and an assist to lead Nashville over Ottawa 3-1 while Patrik Laine took the NHL lead in goals with the second hat trick of his rookie season, lifting Winnipeg to a 3-2 win over Dallas.

Detroit beat Philadelphia 3-1 in a shootout while the New Jersey Devils rallied to defeat defeat, also 3-2 in a shootout.

The Vancouver Canucks broke through with their biggest scoring outburst of the season to beat the New York Rangers 5-3.

Alexandre Burrows scored twice in the third period, and Henrik Sedin and Sven Baertschi each had a goal and an assist to help the Canucks snap a nine-game skid.

”I thought we played the right way,” Burrows said. ”We did a lot of good things defensively at the lines. We pressured a really good team, a fast team, and on the D side, we made some good plays, good reads. … (Markstrom) played great again and it’s a big team win.”

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Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh while Matt Murray stopped 25 shots in his first home start since Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Sidney Crosby was held without a point but helped begin the sequence that set up Sheary for the go-ahead goal.

Edmonton star Connor McDavid assisted on all three Oiler goals, more than holding his own against Crosby, his childhood idol. Jordan Eberle scored twice and Patrick Maroon picked up his fifth of the season. Cam Talbot made 27 saves but couldn’t make a two-goal lead stand up.

Pittsburgh got the late lead when Edmonton forward Benoit Pouliot’s clear attempt smacked off Sheary and into the net.

The Penguins won their fourth straight and remained unbeaten in regulation (6-0-1).

Crosby, a two-time MVP and Stanley Cup winner, and McDavid, the player most likely to one day replace him as the face of the NHL, tried to downplay their first ever meeting. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan joined in, saying he wasn’t going to feed the ”drama” by intentionally matching up Crosby’s No. 87 with McDavid’s No. 97 at every opportunity.

Maybe, but there they were across each other from the opening faceoff, with Crosby winning a clean draw amid the flashbulbs.

It didn’t take long for the 19-year-old McDavid to show what all the fuss was about.

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead 1:57 in on Sheary’s goal before McDavid went to work. Crosby praised McDavid’s speed, calling it the foundation of his success. It was on full display for most of the night.

McDavid kickstarted a mini 2-on-1 with Eberle and slipped a short crossing pass to his teammate that Eberle buried over Murray’s glove 14:23 into the first. McDavid was a blur less than three minutes later, racing into the Pittsburgh zone then weaving his way around defenseman Brian Dumoulin before finding Maroon.

The Penguins, fresh off a 3-0-1 road trip fueled by a resurgent Crosby, briefly found themselves flat-footed trying to keep pace. Talbot turned away a 4-on-1 break to set up an Edmonton rush that ended with Eberle skating in alone on Murray before sending the puck past the sprawled goaltender.

Pittsburgh recovered to tie it, with Hagelin burying a rebound late in the second to bring the Penguins within a goal and Malkin tying it 5:33 into the third with a backhand deflection.

NOTES: The Penguins scratched F Tom Kuhnhackl and Ds Chad Ruhwedel and Steve Olesky. … Edmonton scratched Fs Zack Kassian and Taylor Beck and D Dillon Simpson. … The Penguins went 0 for 3 on the power play. The Oilers were 0 for 2.

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