The New York Rangers registered three second-period goals en route to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday that extended their cross-town rival's recent struggles.

Mika Zibanejad, Will Cuylle and Jonny Brodzinski all scored during the Rangers' big second period, with Brodzinski's tally snapping a 2-2 tie with 4:59 left in the frame.

The Rangers withstood two goals from the Islanders' Bo Horvat, including a short-handed marker in the first period, to record their fifth win in six games and maintain a four-point edge over Carolina for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Hurricanes posted a 7-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday.

On the other side, the Islanders have now lost four straight (0-3-1) and remain one point behind in the race for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.

Zibanejad scored 27 seconds into the second to tie the game at 1-1 before Cuylle put the Rangers ahead midway through the period. Horvat tied the contest just 3:41 afterward, but Brodzinski answered just over a minute later to give the Rangers a 3-2 edge.

The Rangers then put the game out of reach with goals by Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere in the third period.

Igor Shesterkin finished with 25 saves for the Rangers, while counterpart Ilya Sorokin had 26 for the Islanders.

Crosby helps Penguins garner needed win over Red Wings

Sidney Crosby had one of three first-period goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins, who gained some ground in the East's play-off race with a key 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Crosby added an assist in addition to ending an 11-game goal drought to help the Penguins close within five points of Detroit for the conference's final wild-card spot.

Reilly Smith, Valtteri Puustinen and Lars Eller also had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh to aid a 25-save effort from Alex Nedeljkovic.

Smith opened the scoring midway through the first period, though the Red Wings quickly got back even on Lucas Raymond's first of two goals of the game.

Crosby then swatted a rebound past Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon to put Pittsburgh back ahead with 1:07 to go in the first, and Puustinen followed a mere 23 seconds later for a 3–1 Penguins' lead.

Crosby's goal was the 583rd of his career, tying fellow great Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) for the seventh-most by any player with one franchise in NHL history.

Pittsburgh further extended the margin on Michael Bunting's goal midway through the second period. The Red Wings would close within 4-2 when Christian Fischer one-timed a feed from Michael Rasmussen past Nedeljkovic with 2:25 left in the frame, but Eller restored the Penguins' three-goal advantage with a power-play tally shortly before the second intermission.

Raymond scored on a power play with 2:23 remaining to cut Pittsburgh's lead to 5-3, but the Red Wings could not get closer and the Penguins' Drew O'Connor sealed the outcome with an empty-net goal with 26 seconds left.

Detroit, which halted a seven-game losing streak with Saturday's 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres, received 32 saves from Lyon on 37 chances. 

Eichel nets game-winner as Golden Knights top Devils

Jack Eichel scored the go-ahead goal with 8:54 remaining as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied in the third period to earn a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

The defending Stanley Cup champions scored three times in the final 18 minutes to erase a 1-0 deficit and solidify their hold on a play-off spot with their third win in four games. Vegas is tied with the Los Angeles Kings for third place in the Pacific Division and stayed four points in front of St. Louis for the Western Conference's final wild card.

The Blues kept pace with Sunday's 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

Despite Vegas owning a 24-14 shot advantage over the Devils through the first two periods, the teams remained deadlocked in a scoreless tie until New Jersey's Nico Hischier ended the stalemate 38 seconds into the third.

The Golden Knights finally got on the board when William Carrier scored 2:57 into the final period, then went ahead when Eichel ripped a shot past New Jersey goaltender Jake Allen just past the 11-minute mark.

Allen was pulled for an extra attacker with under two minutes left, but Logan Thompson came up with three key late saves before William Karlsson scored into the Devils' empty net in the final seconds to seal the outcome.

Thompson finished with 20 saves while Allen stopped 34 of 36 shots for New Jersey, which fell to 2-7-0 in March.

Roman Josi scored twice in the third period and Juuse Saros stopped 23 shots as the Nashville Predators extended their point streak to 14 games with a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist and Tommy Novak also scored for the Predators, who have gone 12-0-2 since their last regulation loss to Dallas on Feb. 15 to tighten their grip on the top wild card in the Western Conference.

The 14-game streak is tied for the second-longest in franchise history, matching a 14-game run during the 2015-16 season. Nashville earned points in 15 straight in the 2017-18 season, a stretch during which it went 14-0-1.

Andre Burakovsky had the lone goal for Seattle, which dropped its fourth straight (0-3-1) to fall further back in the playoff race.

Streaking Avs top Oilers in OT

Artturi Lehkonen scored with one second left in overtime and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 for their sixth straight victory.

Defenseman Sean Walker scored the other two goals to help the Avalanche improve to 10-2-1 in their last 13 games. They kept pace with Dallas, each with 91 points, to remain tied for the Central Division lead.

Nathan MacKinnon assisted on the winning goal to extend his point streak to 15 games. MacKinnon, who has 10 goals and 21 assists during his run, leads the NHL with 116 points.

Sam Carrick and Warren Foegele scored for the Oilers, who have points in nine of their last 10 contests (7-1-2).

Connor McDavid was held without a point to end his home point streak at 26 games.

Panarin stars in Rangers’ win

Artemi Panarin scored twice and added three assists to lead the New York Rangers to a 7-4 win over the sliding Pittsburgh Penguins.

Chris Kreider and K’Andre Miller each had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, who have won four of five to remain four points ahead of Carolina in the race for the Metropolitan Division title.

Panarin has seven goals and 14 assists in his last 14 games. He has 93 points on the season to become the first player in the franchise’s 97-year history with at least 90 points in three consecutive seasons.

Lars Eller and Bryan Rust had a goal and an assist apiece as the Penguins lost for the eighth time in 10 games and dropped seven points behind the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Anze Kopitar scored two of Los Angeles' four first-period goals as the Kings rolled to a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday to boost their playoff hopes.

Cam Talbot notched his third shutout of the season by stopping all 28 shots he faced from a Chicago team that had scored seven goals in each of its previous two games, both victories.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Laferriere and Jordan Spence each contributed a goal and an assist to help the Kings move two points clear of the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Divison.

The Kings dominated the first two periods and wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, as Dubois rocketed a rebound past Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom on a power play just 3:10 in.

Laferriere redirected a shot from teammate Matt Roy into the net a mere 2:23 later for a 2-0 lead, and Kopitar added his 19th and 20th goals of the season to cause the Blackhawks to pull Soderblom for Petr Mrazek after a little over 14 minutes.

Spence made it 5-0 with his first goal of 2023-24, a shot that trickled by a screened Mrazek 2:31 into the second period.

Soderblom stopped just 10 of 14 shots before being removed, while Mrazek finished with 22 saves.

Toffoli, Brossoit lead Jets' blowout of Ducks

The Winnipeg Jets, meanwhile, created a three-way tie atop the Central Division by cruising to a 6-0 rout of the floundering Anaheim Ducks.

Tyler Toffoli scored two goals to back a 21-save shutout for Laurent Brossoit as Winnipeg joined Colorado and Dallas in first place in the Central. All three teams have 89 points, though the Jets hold a game in hand on the Avalanche and two on the Stars.

Dylan DeMelo added a goal and an assist and Josh Morrissey recorded three assists as the Jets bounced back from Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Ducks were shut out for a second straight game and now have lost five straight, all in regulation.

Kyle Connor got the Jets on the board with 3:40 left in the first period and Nate Schmidt extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal in the second.

Winnipeg then put the game out of reach with a four-goal third, with DeMelo starting the barrage 4:59 into the period.

Toffoli, playing his third game since being acquired by the Jets from the New Jersey Devils at last week's trade deadline, then netted his first two goals with his new team within a span of less than three minutes to increase the margin to 5-0.

Mason Appleton closed out the scoring with a power-play goal with 5.5 seconds left.

John Gibson made 32 saves for Anaheim, which was outshot by a 38-21 margin.

Brayden Point had three goals and three assists to match a team record in points and the Tampa Bay Lightning picked up a key 6-3 win over the New York Rangers on Thursday.

Point scored Tampa Bay’s first goal of the game with 7:19 left in the second period and forged a 3-3 tie at 3:41 of the third. He completed his fourth career hat trick 2:03 later before assisting on Nikita Kucherov’s empty-netter with 3:38 left for a personal-best six points.

Kucherov finished with a goal and four assists to give him 112 points, three behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead.

Steven Stamkos and Anthony Duclair also scored for the Lightning, who have won three of four to move four points ahead of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Jack Roslovic had a goal and an assist for the Rangers, who fell to 14-3-1 in their last 18 games.

Andersen shuts out Panthers

Frederik Andersen stopped 21 shots for his first shutout in more than a year and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Florida Panthers, 4-0.

Andersen notched his third win in as many starts after missing over four months with a blood clotting issue. He has stopped 63 of 66 shots in those games and is 7-1-0 this season.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored his first goal as a member of the Hurricanes and Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov also scored as Carolina won its fourth in five games.

The loss was just the second in 10 games for league-leading Florida, which is one point ahead of Boston for the Atlantic Division lead.

Matthews scores 55th in Maple Leafs’ win

Auston Matthews extended his NHL lead with his 55th goal and the Toronto Maple Leafs scored three times in the first period in a 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Matthews became the first Toronto player to score 55 goals twice in his career and is within five of matching his career-high 60 goals set in 2021-22.

Tyler Bertuzzi, Pontus Holmberg, Timothy Liljegren and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist for the Leafs, who have won eight of 10 on the road to tighten their grip on third place in the Atlantic Division.

Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster had goals for the Flyers, who remained four points ahead of the Islanders in the race for third place in the Metropolitan Division.  

Nathan MacKinnon scored his second goal of the game on a power-play goal 28 seconds into overtime and the Colorado Avalanche rallied from a three-goal deficit for their fifth straight win, 4-3 over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.

Mikko Rantanen began Colorado’s comeback with three seconds left in the second period and MacKinnon made it a one-goal game early in the third. Ross Colton’s goal at 8:43 of the third forged a 3-3 tie.

MacKinnon extended his point streak to 14 games and increased his NHL scoring lead to 115 points, eight more than Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.

Colorado has won seven of eight to tie Dallas for the Central Division lead.  

J.T. Miller and Nikita Zadorov each had a goal and an assist for Western Conference-leading Vancouver, which had won four in a row.

Oilers too much for Capitals

Zach Hyman had a natural hat trick and Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists as the Edmonton Oilers rolled to a 7-2 rout of the Washington Capitals.

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists and Evan Bouchard added a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who have points in eight of their last nine games (7-1-1). They moved six points ahead of Los Angeles and Vegas in the race for second place in the Pacific Division.

McDavid extended his home point streak to 26 games, during which he has 15 goals and 47 assists.

Ivan Miroshnichenko and Connor McMichael scored in the first period as Washington dropped to 0-2 on a five-game road trip.

Surging Predators down Jets

Juuse Saros stopped 27 shots and the Nashville Predators extended their point streak to 13 games with a 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.

Gustav Nyquist, Kiefer Sherwood, Filip Forsberg and Jason Zucker scored to help the Predators improve to 11-0-2 in their last 13 games.

Nashville essentially put the game out of reach with a pair of goals in 22 seconds early in the third period, making it 4-0.

The Predators moved three points ahead of Vegas in the race for the top wild card in the Western Conference.

Aleksander Barkov scored his second goal of the game with 5:22 remaining and the NHL-leading Florida Panthers used a three-goal third period to defeat the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Tuesday.

Dallas held a 3-1 lead midway through the third period, but Barkov scored a power-play goal with 8:51 left and Sam Bennett netted the tying goal just under three minutes later. Barkov scored the winner just 38 seconds later on a power play.

Sam Reinhart added his team-leading 46th goal for the Panthers, who won for the 18th time in 21 games.

Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Joe Pavelski each had a goal and an assist for the Central Division-leading Stars, who had won five in a row.

Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky allowed more than two goals for the first time since Jan. 19, ending his personal 12-game stretch.

Shesterkin perfect again

Igor Shesterkin stopped 28 shots for his second straight shutout and the New York Rangers padded their lead in the Metropolitan Division with a 1-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Shesterkin, who blanked St. Louis on Saturday, turned away five shots in the first period, 11 in the second and 12 more in the third for his 14th career shutout.

Adam Fox scored the game’s only goal late in the first period as New York won its third straight to open a six-point lead over Carolina in the Metro.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 23 saves for the Hurricanes, who had won three in a row.

Rantanen’s big game powers surging Avs

Mikko Rantanen had two goals and two assists and the Colorado Avalanche scored five times in the second period in a 6-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and two assists and Nathan MacKinnon added a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who have won four straight and six of seven to pull within two points of Dallas for the Central Division lead.

MacKinnon, who leads the NHL with 113 points, extended his point streak to 13 games. He has nine goals and 19 assists during that span.

The Flames dropped their third straight after winning six of seven.

David Rittich stopped all 26 shots he faced as the Los Angeles Kings put an end to the New York Islanders' six-game winning streak with Monday's 3-0 victory.

Adrian Kempe, Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore all had goals to back Rittich's second shutout of the season as the Kings bounced back from Saturday's 4-1 home defeat to the Dallas Stars. Moore added an assist on Danault's goal, which gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead 6:07 into the third period.

After an eventful opening period, Kempe put the Kings ahead 7:14 into the second by rifling a shot over the glove of New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin.

Moore set up Danault's close-range goal that gave Los Angeles some more breathing room, then sealed the outcome with an empty-netter with 2:22 left to play.

Rittch polished off his sixth career shutout by making 13 saves in the final period.

Sorokin stopped 22 of 24 shots for New York, which had totalled 13 goals in winning the first two games of its current four-game road trip.

Kapanen, Hofer lead Blues over Bruins

Kasperi Kapanen had a goal and two assists to support a 36-save effort from Joel Hofer that sparked the St. Louis Blues to a needed 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Kevin Hayes and Brandon Saad added a goal and an assist each to help the Blues end a three-game losing streak and gain some ground in the Western Conference play-off race. St. Louis is six points back of the current holders of the West's final wild-card spot, the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

Despite the Bruins owning a 24-17 shot advantage through the first two periods, the Blues built a 4-0 lead as Hofer outperformed counterpart Jeremy Swayman.

Kapanen opened the scoring midway through the first period and Robert Thomas made it 2-0 with a power-play goal later on in the frame. Hayes then extended the margin by burying a feed from Kapanen on a 3-on-1 rush with 4:31 elapsed in the second period.

Saad scored St. Louis' fourth goal later in the second period before the Bruins finally got on the board early in the third on David Pastrnak's team-leading 41st goal of the season.

Boston later pulled Swayman with still nearly nine minutes remaining, a decision that enabled St. Louis' Alexey Toropchenko to score into an empty net with 8:33 left to play.

Swayman stopped just 17 of 21 shots as the Bruins had a four-game point streak snapped (3-0-1).

Rangers extend Devils' struggles, pad lead in Metropolitan Division

Jonathan Quick made 20 saves and the New York Rangers scored twice in the second period en route to a 3-1 win over the still-slumping New Jersey Devils.

Mika Zibanejad and Erik Gustafsson accounted for the second-period goals that helped New York extend its lead over the second-place Carolina Hurricanes to four points in the Metropolitan Division. 

Quick yielded only Simon Nemec's goal with 2:34 remaining to record his 389th career victory, two shy of tying Ryan Miller for the most by an American-born goaltender in NHL history.

Vincent Trocheck tacked on an empty-net goal with 1:13 left that sealed New Jersey's eighth loss in 11 games, and third in four outings since Travis Green replaced the fired Lindy Ruff as head coach last week. 

Kaapo Kahknonen stopped 23 of 25 shots in his Devils' debut. The goaltender was acquired by New Jersey from the San Jose Sharks at Friday's trade deadline.

The red-hot New York Islanders scored three first-period goals en route to a 6-1 rout of the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday that extended their season-high winning streak to six games.

Bo Horvat and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist in the victory, which moved New York into a tie with the Detroit Red Wings for the Eastern Conference's final wild card spot. Both teams have 72 points with the Islanders holding a game in hand.

New York built a 3-0 lead despite producing only six shots on goal in the first period. Casey Cizikas' one-timer off a SImon Holmstrom feed opened the scoring 5:11 in, and Kyle Palmieri beat Anaheim netminder Lukas Dostal on a breakaway just 2:17 later before Nelson's power-play goal extended the margin with 5:32 left in the period.

Alex Killorn scored just 24 seconds into the second to get the Ducks on the board, but the Islanders struck three more times in the third to put the game out of reach.

Horvat extended his goal streak to three games only 34 seconds into the period before Pierre Engvall and Cal Clutterbuck each found the back of the net later on.

New York also received 22 saves from Semyon Varlamov, while Dostal stopped just 13 of 19 shots in the Ducks' second straight loss.

McDavid, Pickard help Oilers extend Penguins' slump

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists to back a sharp 41-save effort from Calvin Pickard as the Edmonton Oilers extended the Pittsburgh Penguins' struggles by cruising to a 4-0 win.

Darnell Nurse added a pair of third-period goals in support of Pickard's spotless performance, though the goaltender did spend the final 1:16 of the second period on the bench after a collision with the Penguins' Bryan Rust. 

Pickard returned to make 16 saves in the third to help deal Pittsburgh its sixth loss in regulation in its last seven games and end Edmonton's two-game losing streak.

McDavid provided all the offence necessary when he scored off a Pittsburgh giveaway in its own end just 68 seconds after the opening face-off. The reigning NHL MVP then helped set up Mattias Ekholm's goal 8:53 into the first period that extended the margin to 2-0.

Nurse registered his seventh and eighth goals of the season just over five minutes apart, with the last coming with 4:02 left to play.

Tristan Jarry finished with 38 saves for the Penguins, who have been outscored by a 15-1 margin while losing their last three contests.

Wild top Predators in overtime after pulling goaltender

A gutsy call from Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes led to Matt Boldy's goal with 1:10 left in overtime and a 4-3 victory over the still-surging Nashville Predators.

Hynes had goaltender Marc Andre-Fleury skate to the bench for an extra attacker with time winding down in overtime, a move that paid off when Boldy one-timed a pass from Mats Zuccarello past Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros to end the contest.

Boldy had two assists in regulation, while Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist to help move the Wild to 3-0-1 over their last four games.

Nashville had a two-game winning streak snapped, but still managed to pick up at least one point for a 12th consecutive outing when Ryan O'Reilly scored on a power play with 2:02 left in regulation to tie the game at 3-3.

The Predators are 10-0-2 over their point streak and have climbed into the Western Conference's first wild card spot with the run. 

After Minnesota's Jonas Brodin and Nashville's Mark Jankowski traded first-period goals, Luke Evangelista put the Predators ahead 3:36 into the second before Kaprizov tied it with a power-play score late in the period.

The Wild grabbed a 3-2 edge when Ryan Hartman scored on a breakaway following a Nashville turnover with 7:32 left in the third period.

Luke Evangelista snapped a third-period tie and Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves to lift the surging Nashville Predators to a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

Kiefer Sherwood had the other goal for Nashville, which has won 10 of its last 11 games (10-0-1) to move into the top wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Predators have won six straight road games and are 17-4-2 in their last 23 away contests.

Columbus got a career high-tying 47 saves from Daniil Tarasov but was unable to win for the fourth time in five games.

The Predators registered the game’s first 14 shots, but it remained scoreless until Sherwood scored his eighth of the season with 7:41 left in the opening period.

Demko exits in Canucks’ win

Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith combined on a shutout and the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Canucks rolled to a 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Demko stopped all 12 shots he faced before leaving midway through the second period and the Canucks said only that he would not return to the game.

DeSmith turned aside 10 shots to help the Canucks win their fourth straight game.

Elias Pettersson, Nils Hoglander and Pius Suter each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver.

Tarasenko leads Panthers over Flames

Vladimir Tarasenko scored his first two goals in a Panthers uniform and Anthony Stolarz turned aside 34 shots to lift the league-leading Panthers to a 5-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

Tarasenko, acquired from Ottawa on Wednesday, scored his first goal of the game 23 seconds into the second period to snap a scoreless tie, and tallied again with 5:05 left in the period to extend the lead to 4-1.

Sam Bennett and Kevin Stenlund also had goals for the Panthers, who bounced back from Thursday’s loss to Philadelphia to improve to 13-2-0 in its last 15 games.

Yegor Sharangovich scored for the Flames, who had won six of seven.

Valeri Nichushkin scored in overtime in his first game in nearly two months to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday.

Nichushkin tallied on a power play at 2:32 of overtime in his first game since Jan. 10, five days before he entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.

Artturi Lehkonen also scored and Nathan MacKinnon had a pair of assists as Colorado won its third straight and fifth in six games.

Alexander Georgiev stopped 29 shots and denied Mats Zuccarello on a penalty shot with 5:55 remaining in regulation.

MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 32 games, tied with Guy Lafleur (1978-79) for the third-longest home point run in NHL history.

Rookie Brock Faber scored for Minnesota, which is 2-0-1 in its last three games as it tries to make up ground in the playoff race.

Stars start fast in win over Ducks

Roope Hintz scored one goal and set up another during Dallas’ three-goal first period and the Stars defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 6-2, for their fourth straight win.

Jamie Benn and Joe Pavelski each had a goal and an assist for the first-place Stars, who have points in six of seven (5-1-1) to maintain a two-point lead over Winnipeg and Colorado in the Central Division.

Dallas scored three times on the power play and is 6 for 12 with the man advantage in its last three games.

Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who had won three of four.

Ingram denies slumping Red Wings

Connor Ingram made 28 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and the Arizona Coyotes snapped a seven-game home losing streak with a 4-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings.

Ingram stopped six shots in the first period, 17 in the second and five more in the third to tie Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry for the league lead in shutouts.

Nick Bjugstad had a goal and an assist and Alex Kerfoot, Logan Cooley and Jack McBain also scored for the Coyotes, who have won three of five following a 14-game skid.

The Red Wings have scored five goals during four consecutive losses after winning six straight.

Garnet Hathaway scored with 22 seconds left in regulation and the Philadelphia Flyers got 29 saves from Samuel Ersson in a 2-1 victory, ending the Florida Panthers’ six-game winning streak on Thursday.

Ryan Poehling had the other goal for the Flyers, who have points in three straight (2-0-1) after losing three of four.

Vladimir Tarasenko was pointless in his Panthers debut after he was acquired from Ottawa on Wednesday.

Florida, which had won six in a row at home, dropped to 12-2-0 in its last 14 games overall.

Flyers defenseman Cam York left late in the third after blocking a shot with his knee, while leading scorer Travis Konecny returned after missing six games with an upper-body injury.

Carolina’s Andersen sharp in return

Frederik Andersen turned away 24 shots after a four-month absence and Brady Skjei scored twice to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Andersen made his first appearance since Nov. 2 due to a blood clotting issue and improved to 5-1 on the season. He had been doing on-ice work for about a month in preparation for his return.

Stefan Noesen and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Hurricanes, who pulled within four points of the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers.

Forsberg has hat trick in Predators’ win

Filip Forsberg recorded his ninth career hat trick to lead the red-hot Nashville Predators to a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Forsberg scored the game’s first goal at 3:53 of the opening period and scored twice in the third period, completing his first hat trick of the season at 6:43.

He extended his point streak to seven games, one short of matching his career high. He has seven goals and five assists during the run.

Luke Evangelista also scored and Juuse Saros stopped 26 shots to help the Predators improve to 9-0-1 in their last 10 games.

Cale Makar notched his first career hat trick and added an assist as the Colorado Avalanche rolled to a 7-2 rout of the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and three assists and Mikko Rantanen tied a career high with four assists as the Avalanche won for the fourth time in five games.

Makar’s first goal of the game at 5:15 of the first period forged a 1-1 tie, and he scored twice late in the second to extend Colorado’s lead to 5-2.

Makar’s hat trick was the fourth by a defenseman in the team’s NHL history and the first since Sandis Ozolinsh against Vancouver on Dec. 6, 1999.

MacKinnon had his second straight four-point game and took over sole possession of the NHL scoring lead with 109 points, four ahead of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.

MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 31 games and his overall run to 11 games.

David Perron and Robby Fabbri scored for the Red Wings, who have lost three straight after winning six in a row.

Matthews lifts Leafs over Sabres in OT

Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 54th goal with 40 seconds left in overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

William Nylander scored in the second period and Ilya Samsonov stopped 23 shots for the Maple Leafs, who have won 10 of their last 12 games and avoided a third straight loss this season to the Sabres.

Victor Olofsson had the lone goal for Buffalo, which has points in six of its past eight contests (5-2-1).

Ducks edge Senators

Alex Killorn snapped a tie early in the third period and Lukas Dostal stopped 29 shots in the Anaheim Ducks’ 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators in a matchup of teams already playing out the string.

Ryan Strome had the other goal as the Ducks won their third in four games despite playing without three of their top four scorers due to injuries and trades.

Mark Kastelic scored for the Senators, who dropped their fifth straight in the opener of a three-game California swing.

Nick Cousins scored twice and the Florida Panthers held on for their sixth straight victory, 5-3 over the New Jersey Devils to spoil the debut of interim coach Travis Green on Tuesday.

Eetu Luostarinen, Evan Rodrigues and Sam Reinhart had the other goals as Florida won for the 12th time in 13 games and extended its NHL lead with 43 wins and 90 points.

The Panthers, who are 25-4-2 since Dec. 23, have won 14 of their past 15 road games.

Jack Hughes, Timo Meier and Colin Miller scored for the Devils, who lost their third straight and fell in their first game since Lindy Ruff was relieved of his coaching duties on Monday.

Backup Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves to win his fourth consecutive start.

Oilers rally past Bruins

Leon Draisaitl scored his second goal of the game in overtime and the surging Edmonton Oilers rallied for a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins.

Stuart Skinner made 25 saves and Connor McDavid assisted on both goals to help the Oilers win their fifth straight game.

McDavid extended his point streak to 12 games, during which he has two goals and 26 assists. He is one point away from his fourth straight 100-point season.

Pavel Zacha scored for the Bruins, who dropped to 2-2-3 in their last seven home games.

Canadiens rally to end Predators’ streak

Nick Suzuki scored just 17 seconds into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens rallied for a 4-3 victory, ending the Nashville Predators’ eight-game winning streak.

The Predators appeared headed for another win when Ryan O’Reilly scored with 7:41 left in regulation for a 3-2 lead, but Joshua Roy tallied the tying goal 2 ½ minutes later.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and an assist for Nashville, which suffered its first loss since Feb. 15.

Brendan Gallagher and David Savard also scored for the Canadiens, who have points in four straight (2-0-2).

Sam Reinhart scored two goals and Ryan Lomberg recorded the game-winner in the third period as the Florida Panthers stayed hot with a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Monday's showdown between division leaders.

Anton Lundell sealed Florida's fifth consecutive win and 11th in 12 games with an empty-net goal in the final minute, while Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling had two assists in support of Sergei Bobrovsky's 26-save effort.

The win maintained the Panthers' two-point advantage on the Boston Bruins for first place in both the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division, with the Metropolitan-leading Rangers now four points back of Florida.

After the Rangers tied the game at 2-2 on Chris Kreider's power-play goal late in the second period, the Panthers outshot New York by a 12-6 margin while dominating the third.

Lomberg snapped the deadlock 6:11 into the period when his wrist shot got past New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin, and Lundell put the game out of reach by scoring with 59 seconds remaining.

The Rangers took a 1-0 lead after one period on Will Cuylle's power-play goal, but Reinhart registered his 43rd and 44th goals of the season within a span of 2:45 in the second to put Florida ahead. His first of the night was his league-leading 25th in power-play situations.

Shesterkin stopped 25 of 28 shots for New York, which has now lost three of four following a franchise-record 10-game winning streak from Jan. 27-Feb. 24.

MacKinnon extends home point streak as Avalanche blank Blackhawks

Nathan MacKinnon increased his home point streak to 30 games with a two-goal, two-assist performance that helped the Colorado Avalanche cruise to a 5-0 rout over the badly struggling Chicago Blackhawks.

Justus Annunen stopped 37 shots to record his second shutout of Chicago in five days and send the Blackhawks to a seventh straight loss. The rookie netminder had 24 saves in Colorado's 5-0 win at Chicago on Thursday.

MacKinnon gave Annunen all the help he would need by blasting a shot past Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek 12:31 in. The Colorado captain's home point streak is the second-longest to start a season in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky's 40-game run with the Los Angeles Kings in 1988-89.

MacKinnon then set up Jonathan Drouin's goal later in the first period before adding another assist on Cale Makar's score with 7:22 left in the second that extended the Avs' lead to 3-0.

Zach Parise made it 4-0 when he redirected a drive from Caleb Jones five minutes after Makar's goal, and MacKinnon capped his four-point night with a power-play tally with 4:25 remaining. 

Mrazek finished with 32 saves in Chicago's ninth shutout loss of the season, tied with the San Jose Sharks for the most in the NHL.

Zacha's two goals lead Bruins past Maple Leafs

The Boston Bruins were able to keep pace with the Panthers in the Eastern Conference race by delivering a 4-1 win over the rival Toronto Maple Leafs behind Pavel Zacha's two goals and 32 saves from Jeremy Swayman.

Jake DeBrusk chipped in a goal and an assist and David Pastrnak had three assists to help the Bruins win for the second time in three outings following a three-game losing streak.

Morgan Geekie added a goal that put Boston ahead midway through the first period, and Zacha made it 2-0 by converting a power-play chance just under three minutes later.

Swayman came up with 13 saves during a second period in which DeBrusk produced the only goal, though Toronto's John Tavares scored for a second straight game to end the shutout bid 3:52 into the third.

Zacha completed his first multi-goal outing of the season by knocking in a feed from Pastrnak with 9:25 remaining.

Toronto, which had won nine of 10 coming in, received 23 saves from Joseph Woll.

For the second game in as many nights, the Winnipeg Jets came out flat over the first two periods.

And for the second game in as many nights, the Jets stormed back in the third period to rally for a victory.

Winnipeg erupted for four goals in the final 10 minutes Sunday to beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-2.

With their ninth win in 11 games, the Jets (39-16-5) moved into a tie with the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division.

Winnipeg's latest third-period outburst came one night after it tallied all five goals in the final period against the Carolina Hurricanes to rally from a 3-0 deficit to pull out a 5-3 road victory.

Josh Morrissey started the rally with a goal at 10:38 of the third period to tie the score and Morgan Barron put the Jets ahead on a partial breakaway with 6:05 remaining.

Vladislav Namestnikov and Sean Monahan capped the scoring with empty-net goals in the final 81 seconds.

Nino Niederreiter scored the Jets' first goal with six seconds to go in the first period and Laurent Brossoit stopped 17 shots to win his third straight start.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 30 of the 33 shots as Buffalo (29-29-4) lost for just the second time in seven games.

JJ Peterka opened the scoring for the Sabres with his 20th goal of the season and Eric Robinson also scored.

Canucks end mini skid with win over Ducks to move back atop West

Conor Garland and Nils Hoglander each scored goals to help the Vancouver Canucks beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1.

The Canucks (39-17-7), who arrived in Anaheim having lost back-to-back games and six of seven, moved back into sole possession of first place in the Western Conference.

Both teams scored on their first shot, with Hoglander opening the scoring at 1:37 of the first period and Alex Killorn tying things up at 4:15.

Garland broke the tie at 3:34 of the second period when he redirected a pass from Nikita Zadorov for his first goal in nine games.

Casey DeSmith stopped 17 shots to end a personal four-game losing streak to win for the first time since January 9.

Lukas Dostal turned aside 29 shots for the Ducks (22-36-3), who lost for the first time in three games.

Danault scores three goals as Kings beat Devils

Phillip Danault recorded his second career hat trick to help lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils.

Kevin Fiala assisted on two of Danault's goals, and added a goal of his own, while Alex Laferriere also scored for the Kings (31-19-10), who won for the eighth time in 12 games under interim coach Jim Hiller.

New Jersey's Timo Meier opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the first period and Danault tied it at 7:56 on a breakaway.

Danault finished the scoring with an empty-netter with 2:13 remaining to notch his first hat trick since December 22, 2018, when he played for the Montreal Canadiens.

Meier's goal - his second goal in as many games after scoring two goals in his previous 20 contests - was the only score allowed by Cam Talbot, who finished with 30 saves.

Akira Schmid stopped all nine shots he faced after replacing an ineffective Nico Daws, who was lifted in the second period after giving up four goals on 13 shots.

The Devils (30-27-4) have lost two in a row and five of seven.