PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist in his return from injured reserve and the Dallas Stars pulled away from the undermanned Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Saturday.

Jason Robertson reached the 40-goal plateau for the third time in his career and assisted on Rantanen’s goal with a slick cross-ice feed to the right circle that Rantanen — who hadn’t played since getting hurt on Feb. 20 while playing for Team Finland at the Milan Cortina Olympics — powered past Stuart Skinner for his first NHL tally since Feb. 2.

Mavrik Bourque scored a pair of empty-net goals late after the Penguins had pulled within one. Justin Hryckowian and Lian Bichsel also scored for the Stars, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Jake Oettinger stopped just nine shots, but that was enough to improve to 7-1 in his career against the Penguins.

Erik Karlsson, Anthony Mantha and Noel Acciari scored for Pittsburgh, who played without franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby (lower body) and Evgeni Malkin (upper body), both of whom coach Dan Muse described as “day to day.”

Skinner, making a second consecutive start following a solid outing in a shootout victory in Ottawa on Thursday, finished with 20 saves but couldn’t stop the Penguins from being leapfrogged by the New York Islanders, who moved into second place in the Metropolitan Division with a victory over Florida earlier Saturday.

Robertson and Rantanen gave the Stars the lead when they scored 3 minutes apart in the second period, each assisting on the other’s goal. When Bichsel’s shot from the point beat Skinner less than two minutes after Rantanen’s marker, Dallas had a two-goal lead.

Up next

Stars travel to Philadelphia on Sunday.

Penguins visit the New York Islanders on Monday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

BOSTON (AP) — Pavel Zacha scored his 25th goal in the opening period and added a game-sealing score late in the game, leading the Boston Bruins past Minnesota 6-3 on Saturday to spoil the Wild’s chance to clinch a playoff spot.

Elias Lindholm scored twice while Andrew Peeke and Viktor Arvidsson also had goals for the Bruins. David Pastrnak extended his season-high point streak to 12 games with two assists and Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves.

In a tight race with Montreal for third place in the Atlantic Division, Boston has won four of its last five games and 15 of its last 17 home games.

The Wild have lost six of their last nine but have a firm hold on third place in the Central Division. A victory Saturday would have earned them a playoff berth.

Kirill Kaprizov scored late in the second period for Minnesota after it fell behind 3-0. Mats Zuccarello added a power-play goal with a two-man advantage in the third to pull the Wild within 4-2.

Ryan Hartman’s goal sliced Minnesota’s deficit to 4-3 with just over 6 minutes left before Zacha’s second with 3:10 left sealed it.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 25 shots but failed to pick up his 100th career victory.

Peeke’s shot from just above the right circle caromed in off the far post and crossbar, making it 1-0 just 61 seconds into the game.

Zacha extended his career-high goal mark by one-timing Arvidsson’s feed past Gustavsson 14 minutes into the first. Zacha’s previous career-best total was 21, done twice in his first two seasons with Boston.

Pastrnak sent a cross-ice pass to Arvidsson, who beat Gustavsson for a tough-angle goal from deep at the left circle midway into the second.

The Wild easily handled the Bruins in the teams’ previous matchup in Minnesota on Dec. 14.

Up Next

Wild: Host Vancouver on Thursday.

Bruins: At Columbus Sunday.

___

AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

Let’s face it: Thursday’s Opening Day win was too easy. Too stress-free. The Mets aren’t really, truly back until they have a game that makes you question all the life choices that led to you deciding to spend three precious hours of your day watching them. Well, you best believe it: the Mets are officially BACK after today’s game in which the bats were held silent for three hours, followed by some extra innings nonsense. And yet, while this game was looking like it was going to be the first infuriating loss of the season, it instead proved to be the first thrilling come-from-behind victory of the season, with Luis Robert Jr. socking an 11th inning walk-off bomb to give the Mets win number two of 2026.

It was a cold and windy day at Citi Field today, and that perhaps played a role in both offenses being helpless for most of the afternoon. Starting pitchers David Peterson and Mitch Keller both put up zeroes in the first four innings while giving up just two hits and keeping their pitch counts low. The Pirates did load the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth against Peterson, but he induced a pop-up to first base from Marcell Ozuna to keep the game scoreless. He got in trouble again in the following inning by giving up two singles—one on a sharp grounder to first that Jorge Polanco couldn’t handle, and another on a bloop single to center—and Carlos Mendoza decided to pull his starter there after 5.1 innings of work in which he surrendered six hits and two walks while recording three strikeouts (a fairly quintessential statline for the longest-tenured Met). But Huascar Brazobán came out of the bullpen and got out of the jam to preserve Peterson’s 0.00 2026 ERA and keep the game scoreless.

Still, the Mets continued to be unable to get any rallies going against Keller. After Luke Weaver tossed a scoreless top of the seventh, the Pirates mercifully went to their bullpen after six scoreless innings from their starter, and it looked like the Amazins might finally break through after back-to-back leadoff walks against Justin Lawrence (who surrendered two homers in Thursday’s game). But he came back to strikeout Brett Baty and Marcus Semien, and the Pirates then brought in Gregory Soto to face Carson Benge, who also struck out to end the threat and prevent the first run of the game from crossing the plate.

After a 1-2-3 inning from Brooks Raley, the Mets tried again to score against Soto in the bottom of the eighth, and Francisco Alvarez started the frame with a leadoff walk and was subsequently pinch-ran for by Tyrone Taylor with the top of the order coming up. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto were both retired, but Taylor wound up on third base (advancing to second on a wild pitch and to third on a fielder’s choice) to give Bo Bichette—the best hitter with runners in scoring position last year—a chance to give the Mets the lead. Alas, he instead struck out swinging, and the game headed to the ninth with goose eggs on both sides.

Devin Williams came on to make his Mets debut in the top of the ninth. Coming the day after Edwin Díaz made a successful debut for the Dodgers, we were gearing to have some major #discourse from the hysterical population of the Mets fanbase if the team’s new closer blew the game this early in the season. And much like the previous closer, Williams bent—allowing a double and walk in the inning—but did not break, striking out Bryan Reynolds with two outs to end the Pittsburgh threat and send the game into the bottom of the ninth. For the third straight inning—this time against new Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana—the Mets worked a leadoff walk to start the inning, and the winning run advanced to second on a fielder’s choice grounder to first by Luis Robert Jr. Alas, Baty then lined a ball to first base, and the runner at second was doubled off to send the game to extras.

Luis García—who surrendered two runs in his first outing of the season on Thursday—was called upon in the tenth, and the Pirates finally managed to bring home the first run of the ballgame against him on a one-out single to center off the bat of Nick Gonzales. He threatened to give up more after loading the bases on an infield single and a walk, but he retired Jake Mangum on a groundout to third base to keep the deficit at one, giving the Amazins the chance to at least tie the game with the ghost runner at second to start the bottom of the frame.

Well, the Mets finally did score a run in the bottom of the inning—and yet it somehow proved to be the most frustrating inning in a game full of them. Facing off against rookie lefty Hunter Barco with the bottom of the order due up, Semien started things off by getting hit by a pitch. Mendoza then called upon Mark Vientos to pinch-hit for Benge, and Swaggy V started his 2026 season by getting a single to left to load the bases with nobody out. That brought up Luis Torrens, who entered the game after Alvarez left for a pinch-runner earlier. The Mets might have preferred to have the latter up in this spot, but no matter—Torrens came through with another single to left to tie the game and keep the bases loaded. So with no outs and the top of the order coming up, surely the Amazins had this win in the bag, yes? Well… no. Lindor and Soto both had identical outcomes in their respective at-bats, hitting grounders that resulted in force-outs at home plate. Then with two outs, Bichette—who’d already failed with a runner in scoring position earlier—flew out to right field to end the inning. Thus, we were no longer scoreless, but still tied. Onto the eleventh!

With basically everyone else in the bullpen having been used by this point, Mendoza had to turn to Richard Lovelady to try to keep the Pirates off the board. He might be the last man in the bullpen pecking order, but he came pretty dang close to getting out of the inning unscathed after recording the first two outs, with the second out coming via a grounder to second that advanced the ghost runner to second. That unfortunately proved to be consequential, as Reynolds then hit a soft grounder down the third base line that stayed fair and allowed the second Pirates run of the day to score. And Lovelady almost subsequently surrendered even more after Marcell Ozuna lined a ball to right field and put runners on the corners, but he instead struck out Gonzales to end the threat and once again hold the Pirates to just one extra-inning run.

Still, just like last inning, one couldn’t help but feel as though we were setting up for a disappointing end to the game in which the Mets couldn’t bring home the ghost runner. But that very quickly proved to not be the case. Polanco walked to lead-off the inning against Barco, and Robert—lefty-masher that he is—had himself his first signature moment with his new team, as he socked a three-run homer over the left field wall to double the amount of runs scored in today’s game, and to give the Mets the come-from-behind victory.

In the end, it’s just win number two. We still have 160 games to go. But we certainly have seen plenty of these types of games go the other way for the Mets in years past—particularly last season—so to overcome the mostly frustrating affair and come out on the winning side is nevertheless a breath of fresh air. Now we will see the Amazins go for the sweep tomorrow with Nolan McLean taking the mound.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Luis Robert Jr. (duh), +50.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luis García and Richard Lovelady, -31.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: +4.8% WPA
Mets hitters: +45.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Luis Robert Jr. walk-off three-run homer in the 11th (duh again), +49.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Bryan Reynolds RBI single in the 11th, -34.0% WPA

CINCINNATI (AP) — Dane Myers’ single to left in the 11th inning scored designated runner TJ Friedl from third as the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox 6-5 on Saturday.

Myers’ third career game-ending hit came off Justin Slaten (0-1). Connor Phillips (1-0) got the win for Cincinnati.

The Reds led 4-1 after three innings before the Red Sox rallied. Wilyer Abreu hit a solo homer with two out in the ninth inning off Reds closer Emilio Pagán to tie the score at 5.

Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz each hit solo homers for the Reds. Trevor Story homered for Boston.

Sonny Gray had a rough Red Sox debut, allowing four runs, three earned, in four innings. He walked one and fanned five on 80 pitches.

Brady Singer allowed three runs on five hits in four innings in his season debut for the Reds. Singer left his final spring training start with a blister on his right index finger, but reported no issues Saturday.

Gray, who was acquired in a trade with the Cardinals in November, had a rough first inning in his debut, allowing two runs on two hits on 35 pitches.

McLain’s RBI double made the score 3-0 in the second. McLain went 3 for 4.

Stewart, who had three hits on opening day, homered on Gray’s first pitch of the third.

De La Cruz homered on the first pitch from Greg Weissert in the fifth.

There were eight ABS challenges in the game and six calls were overturned. The Reds went 5 for 5. CB Bucknor was the home plate umpire.

The Red Sox used both of their ABS challenges by the end of the third. With no challenges available in the fourth, Story was called out on strikes on a pitch outside the zone to strand a runner at second.

After Story was called out on a check swing to strand two runners in the eighth, Red Sox manager Alex Cora was ejected by Bucknor for arguing the call.

Up next

Reds right-hander Rhett Lowder will oppose Red Sox lefty Connelly Early in Sunday’s series finale.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

Shayne Gostisbehere, Jackson Blake, Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis also scored for the Hurricanes, who won for the fourth time in five games. Brandon Bussi stopped 17 shots to win his second straight start after losing his previous three.

Timo Meier and Evgenii Dadonov scored for New Jersey and Jacob Markstrom had 29 saves. It was only the second loss in seven games for the Devils.

Ehlers, who has has seven goals and 10 assists in 13 games this month, fueled a three-goal second period for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes signed Ehlers to a six-year, $51 million contract in the offseason.

After not scoring a goal in the first 11 games of the season, Ehlers has 23 goals in 61 games. The 30-year-old left wing spent the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with Winnipeg. He has found a role in Carolina on a checking line with Staal, the Hurricanes’ captain, and gritty veteran winger Jordan Martinook.

Ehlers’ power-play goal at 10:10 of the second period tied the game at 1-1. Blake fooled New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler on a goal that gave Carolina a 2-1 lead at 13:48. Ehlers set up Staal at 15:13 to make it 3-1.

Gostisbehere returned after a nine-game absence due to lower-body injury. He added a goal at 15:25 in the third and Jarvis tacked on an empty-net goal.

Meier finished a pretty play by Dawson Mercer to give New Jersey a 1-0 after the first period.

Carolina out-shot New Jersey 34-20.

Up next

Devils: Host Chicago on Sunday.

Hurricanes: Host Montreal on Sunday.

——

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

The Mets rallied in the 11th inning to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Saturday at Citi Field, as Luis Robert Jr. hit a three-run home run to end the game.

The Mets didn’t score until the 10th inning, but rallied twice in extra innings to pull out the win.

Here are the takeaways…

-Here’s how the Mets won it in the 11th: with the free runner at second, Marcus Semien drew a walk and then Robert Jr. jumped all over an 82-mph slider from lefty Hunter Barco, hitting it over the left field wall for the game-winner.

The Mets’ high-leverage relievers were essentially flawless on Saturday, but with the game in extra innings Luis Garcia and Richard Lovelady each gave up a run in the 10th and 11th innings.

-The Mets rallied in the bottom of the 10th inning to tie the score at 1-1, but missed a golden opportunity to win the game as Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette all failed to deliver the winning run from third base. to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 at Citi Field on Saturday, pushing their record to 2-0.

Luis Torrens had lined a single to left, tying the game at 1-1. Lindor grounded to second for a force out at the plate, then Soto got jammed on a fastball, and squibbed a ball slowly between the pitcher and the third base line. Barco made a nice play, getting to it and flipping it home to get another force out at the plate.

Bichette then flew out to right to end the inning.

For the day the Mets managed six hits, and Robert Jr.’s home run was their only extra-base hit. They went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

-Bichette, who hit .381 last season w/RISP, had two big chances to change the game. He struck out with two outs in the eighth inning with the go-ahead run on third base at the time, looking bad chasing sliders down-and-in from Pirates’ lefty Gregory Soto.

And then in the 10th, with the bases loaded and two outs, he got under a 1-1 sweeper from Barco and flew out routinely to right.

-In his first appearance replacing Edwin Diaz as Mets closer, Devin Williams put up a zero in his first appearance as closer for the Mets, striking out Bryan Reynolds with runners at first and third to end the top of the ninth and keep the game tied at the time.

A line double by Jake Mangum and then a two-out walk to Ryan O’Hearn set up the Reynolds at-bat.

Williams got ahead of Reynolds 0-2 with two fastballs, one fouled off. After showing him his signature change-up, the air-bender, for a ball down, Williams beat Reynolds with a fastball for the swinging strikeout.

That finished up an outstanding day for the key relievers in the Mets’ bullpen, as Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver, and Brooks Raley all put up zeroes as well over the final 3.2 innings.

–David Peterson delivered a solid first start of the season. Despite allowing nine baserunners, on six hits, two walks, and a Bichette error, the lefthander held the Pirates scoreless over 5.1 innings as he made big pitches to get out of trouble in the fourth and fifth, and got relief help from Brazoban to escape the sixth.

For Peterson, it was a good sign as he looks to bounce back from his poor performance in the second half of last season, especially in September, after making the All-Star team with a strong first half.

Before Saturday’s game, Carlos Mendoza said he felt confident that Peterson’s slump was mostly the result of “hitting the wall” after throwing a career-high 165 innings.

Peterson’s biggest pitch was a 2-0 fastball, with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, to Marcell Ozuna. Though the four-seamer was clocked at only 89 mph, Ozuna popped it up for an easy out.

Peterson’s velocity was down a bit throughout the game compared to last season. He was mostly 89-90 with his four-seamer, which averaged 92.3 mph last season.

Brazoban came on with runners at first and second in the sixth, and one out, and shut the door.

-Bichette made his first error at his new position of third base, fielding a routine ground ball from Reynolds in the fourth inning but then throwing high and wide of first base, as Polanco had to come off the base to catch the ball, too far off to tar the runner.

Bichette also made something of an unconventional play on a slow ground ball, positioning himself as he moved to his left so he could field the ball backhanded. It looked odd, but it put him in position to use his momentum to make a strong throw.

–Mitch Keller threw six shutout innings for the Pirates, allowing only three baserunners, all on singles.

Keller has historically been tough on the Mets. He came in with a 2.06 career ERA against them in six previous starts, though the ERA was higher, 3.46, in two starts at Citi Field.

Game MVP: Luis Robert Jr.

Duh. Robert Jr. is a gamble that so far is paying off in a big way, after coming over in a trade from the Chicago White Sox at a $20 million salary this season.

The Mets are convinced that if he can just stay healthy, he can put up a season as he did in 2023 when he was an AL All-Star.

Highlights

Bo Bichette’s first hit as a Met! pic.twitter.com/w4ZJFRKBwu

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

David Peterson gets Marcell Ozuna to pop out and escapes a bases-loaded jam pic.twitter.com/i1nxplposH

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

STRUCK HIM OUT!

Devin Williams fans Bryan Reynolds to keep the game scoreless! pic.twitter.com/l7i1L0gLco

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

Two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning for Brooks Raley! 💪 pic.twitter.com/jpUuNrEtmO

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

LUIS TORRENS TIES THE GAME IN THE 10TH! pic.twitter.com/hHMl8vEjfl

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

LA PANTERA ARRIVES IN QUEENS.

LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!!! pic.twitter.com/qJ2JbnRVL9

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

What’s next

The Mets and Pirates wrap up their weekend series on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1:40 p.m.

Nolan McLean will make his 2026 debut, and he’ll go against Carmen Miodzinski.

The Milwaukee Brewers are calling up top catcher prospect Jeferson Quero to fill in for Andrew Vaughn, who is going on the injured list with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand. The team officially announced the move before Saturday’s matchup with the Chicago White Sox.

Vaughn injured his hand in the Brewers’ season opener on Thursday and is the second Brewers everyday player to go on the IL early in the season. Jackson Chourio, who fractured his hand during the spring, is expected to miss two to four weeks. Vaughn will likely be sidelined for four to six weeks, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports.

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season

Quero, 23, was ranked among baseball’s top overall prospects before suffering a torn labrum in 2024. Last season, a hamstring injury suffered in the spring limited him to 69 games. But he returned to post a slash line of .271/.361/.478 with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 47 RBI in 250 plate appearances at Triple-A.

The catcher came into this season ranked No. 8 among Brewers prospects by MLB.com and fourth by The Athletic.

With William Contreras entrenched at catcher, it’s likely that Quero will be a right-handed bat off the bench with the Brewers. Gary Sánchez, who signed a one-year deal in February, could play more at first base while Jake Bauers gets time in left field during Chourio’s IL stint.

After being acquired from the Chicago White Sox last season, Vaughn split time with Rhys Hoskins at first base before taking over during the second half of the season. He hit .308/.375/.493 with 14 doubles, 9 homers and 46 RBI in 254 PAs.