A matchup of early-season conference powers takes place Saturday

TAMPA Mikael Granlund Jersey , Fla. — A matchup of early-season conference powers takes place Saturday when the Eastern Conference leading Tampa Bay Lightning host the Western Conference leading Colorado Avalanche at Amalie Arena.The Lightning enter the game winners of five straight and sit four points ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs atop the conference standings. The Avalanche have won seven of their past eight on the road and sit tied with Nashville on top of the West standings.It will be a matchup of Tampa Bay’s impressive depth up and down the lineup against Colorado’s trio of Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, which will be back together after being broken up at the end of Thursday’s victory at Florida.Article continues below ...The Avalanche top line has combined for 48 goals and 124 points through 29 games. Rantanen leads the league with 47 points and 35 assists while MacKinnon is second with 44 points.But for the third period against Florida, with the game tied 2-2, Colorado head coach Jared Bednar split up the top line, moving J.T. Compher to that top line and moving Rantanen to the second line. The Avalanche went on to win the game 5-2, with Compher scoring the tie-breaking goal.“Whenever coach puts you out with guys of that caliber it’s exciting,” Compher told NHL.com. “It was a great opportunity for me, and seeing how hard those guys work, they dog pucks all the time. I just tried to get out there to get on the forecheck trying to create turnovers, and we had a real good shift, pinned them in their zone and were able to get a goal.”That type of work ethic Youth Mikko Koivu Jersey , Bednar felt, was not up to par, which prompted the switch to start the third period.“I felt like our top guys were struggling to kind of gain some traction,” Bednar told NHL.com. “They did have their chances, they scored on Mikko’s tip (in the first period) and they were doing some good things, but the regular traction that I expect out of that line wasn’t there. I thought maybe I flip them [and] sometimes you can get a spark, and if I didn’t like it I could just move it back real quick.”Bednar told BSNDenver.com on Friday that the trio would be back together to begin Saturday’s game against the Lightning, while goaltender Semyon Varlamov starts in goal.Tampa Bay, meanwhile, has a deep group of forwards that features five players who have already reached double digits in goal, led by Brayden Point who is tied for the league lead with 21 goals. Linemate Nikita Kucherov is third in league scoring with 43 points.The Lightning also have seven players with at least 20 points and 10 players with at least five goals scored through 30 games.“It’s definitely a strength on our team,” said Lightning goaltender Louis Domingue Ryan Suter Jersey , who is 9-2 in 11 starts since the loss of No. 1 goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. “We saw it when some of our best players got injured, someone else jumped in the lineup and did a good job. It’s even guys that aren’t playing right now, when they come in, they are ready to go, and they do a good job.” PHILADELPHIA (AP) Sidney Crosby’s continued dominance of the Flyers helped the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins move back into first place.Conor Sheary scored two goals, Crosby had three assists and Pittsburgh surged into the top spot in the Metropolitan Division with a 5-2 victory over the Flyers on Wednesday night.Phil Kessel, Jamie Oleksiak and Evgeni Malkin also scored for the Penguins, who have won three straight. Pittsburgh (39-25-4, 82 points) moved one point ahead of idle Washington and three in front of third-place Philadelphia.Crosby continued to haunt the Flyers, upping his total to 91 points in 62 career games against Pittsburgh’s intrastate rival.”Everybody gets up for it,” Crosby said of the rivalry. ”It brings out the best in everybody.”Crosby’s third assist gave him 1,100 career points.”His line was dynamic Evgeny Svechnikov Jersey Womens ,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.Sheary began the game on the fourth line, but played alongside Crosby for parts of the night – and benefited greatly. Crosby assisted on both goals to help Sheary break out of a slump, as he entered without a goal in 15 straight contests.”He goes to tough areas and plays bigger than he is,” Crosby said of the 5-foot-8 Sheary.”Thrilled for Conor,” Sullivan said. ”Essentially what I told him is, `Nothing lasts forever.”’Travis Konecny and Jakub Voracek had goals for the Flyers, who lost their fourth in a row.”We didn’t play a complete game 5-on-5,” Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol said. ”We made some mistakes.”The teams combined for six goals in an electrifying second period.Voracek netted his 15th of the season 2:07 into the period to tie it at 1. Nolan Patrick caused a turnover with strong backchecking, passed to Voracek and his shot from the side boards deflected off Pittsburgh’s Derick Brassard and past Tristan Jarry.Konecny put Philadelphia ahead 3:54 later when he batted the puck over Jarry’s right pad.But the Penguins scored three straight goals to take a 4-2 lead into the third.”They scored when they needed to score,” Voracek said. ”They make you pay.”Oleksiak tied it at 2 with 10:36 remaining with a slap shot that got through the screen of Crosby and Jake Guentzel and past Peter Mrazek.”He can really shoot the puck, has a bomb of a shot,” Sullivan said.Sheary gave the Penguins a 3-2 lead with his first of the night Womens Zach Parise Jersey , finishing a 2-on-1 break with Crosby with 5:35 remaining in the period. Mrazek made a good pad save on Crosby’s initial shot. But the rebound went right to Sheary, who backhanded it in for his 13th of the season.Sheary’s second goal from a sharp angle with 49.3 seconds left in the period put Pittsburgh ahead by two goals. Guentzel’s shot from the high slot deflected off Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning to a wide-open Sheary to the right of the net, and Mrazek couldn’t recover in time. Crosby got a secondary assist on the goal, his third of the night.Kessel, playing in his 900th NHL game, opened the scoring with 1:25 left in the first period on the power play on assists from Malkin and Crosby. Malkin set the goal up with a perfect pass across the crease, and Kessel converted the easy finish with a forehand shot for his 28th goal.Malkin’s goal was an empty-netter with 1:41 remaining.NOTES: Philadelphia Eagles LB Mychal Kendricks helped provided on-ice commentary during the first period. … Pittsburgh improved to 3-0 against the Flyers this season. The teams wrap up their regular-season series on March 25 in Pittsburgh. … Mrazek has allowed 19 goals while losing the last four games. … Philadelphia F Wayne Simmonds returned after missing seven games due to a lower-body injury. D Andrew MacDonald also was back on the ice after sitting out Sunday’s 4-1 loss at Florida due to an upper-body injury. … Pittsburgh RW Bryan Rust (upper body) didn’t return after being checked by Robert Hagg with 11:32 left in the first period, and C Dominik Simon (lower body) didn’t play after getting hurt in the second period. Sullivan said both would be re-evaluated Thursday.UP NEXTPenguins: At Toronto on Saturday night.Flyers: At Boston on Thursday night.