SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and the Florida Panthers tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 on Thursday night and claiming first in the Atlantic Division and the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Panthers (118 points) also moved two points ahead of Western Conference-leading Colorado in the race for the best record in the NHL. Florida and the Avalanche have five games remaining.
The Panthers matched the 12-game winning streak they posted from Dec. 15, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016.
Mason Marchment had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart, MacKenzie Weegar and Noel Acciari also scored for the Panthers.
Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists and moved into a tie with Connor McDavid of idle Edmonton for the league lead in points at 113.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots for the Panthers.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Sam Gagner scored for Detroit, and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 22 shots.
LIGHTNING 8, MAPLE LEAFS 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored his 34th goal of the season and became Tampa Bay’s all-time scoring leader in a win over Toronto.
Stamkos, the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, fired a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Nikita Kucherov for the record-breaking 954th point of his career. He moved past Martin St. Louis, who had 365 goals and 588 assists with the Lightning. Stamkos added a pair of assists for his fourth consecutive multipoint game.
Kucherov collected career point No. 600 on the Stamkos goal and added his 20th goal of the season. Alex Killorn (two goals), Ondrej Palat and Ross Colton (two goals) each finished three points. Pat Maroon added his 10th of the season as the Lightning set had a season high in goals scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots.
Ilya Mikheyev scored a power-play goal for the Maple Leafs. Erik Kallgren stopped 28 shots for Toronto.
RANGERS 6, ISLANDERS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Andrew Copp scored three goals in the first period, Chris Kreider got his 51st of the season and the Rangers beat the rival Islanders.
Ryan Strome had a goal and an assist, Ryan Reaves also scored, Artemi Panarin had four assists and Adam Fox added three to help the Rangers win their fourth straight and seventh in their last eight. Alexandar Georgiev had 26 saves to improve to 14-9-2.
The Rangers remained tied with Carolina atop the Metropolitan Division with 108 points.
Brock Nelson scored twice, Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, and Semyon Varlamov finished with 17 saves for the Islanders, who are 3-5-1 in their last nine.
HURRICANES 4, JETS 2
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Seth Jarvis scored on a rebound at 8:21 of the third period to help Carolina overcome a two-goal deficit and beat Winnipeg.
Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin also scored in the rally for the Hurricanes, who are tied with the New York Rangers for the Metropolitan Division lead. Captain Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Antti Raanta, pressed into a lead role due to an injury to No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, made 20 saves for Carolina. The Hurricanes had a 46-22 edge in shots.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored first-period goals for Winnipeg. The Jets ended a six-game trip with their fourth straight loss. Eric Comrie made 42 saves.
PENGUINS 4, BRUINS 0
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 saves and Jake Guentzel scored three goals in Pittsburgh's win over Boston.
Guentzel completed the hat trick with an empty-netter, his 40th goal of the season, as Pittsburgh moved two points ahead of Washington for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Jason Zucker also scored for the Penguins, who have won three of five following a four-game losing streak.
Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for the Bruins, whose two-game winning streak ended. Boston has lost five of eight overall.
WILD 6, CANUCKS 3
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kevin Fiala scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Minnesota beat Vancouver.
The Wild locked up the second spot in the Central Division and will face the third-place St. Louis Blues in the first round of the playoffs. Minnesota lost all three games against St. Louis this season, including two in overtime.
Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and two assists for the Wild, who also got goals from Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman.
Elias Pettersson scored twice for the Canucks and Matthew Highmore had Vancouver’s other goal.
Cam Talbot made 21 saves for the Wild to earn his 200th win. Thatcher Demko stopped 25 shots for Vancouver.
SABRES 5, DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch scored short-handed goals less than a minute apart in the second period, and Buffalo beat New Jersey.
Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Jeff Skinner also scored, and 40-year-old Craig Anderson had 31 saves for the Sabres in a matchup of teams eliminated from playoff contention.
Nikita Okhotiuk scored in his NHL debut and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Devils. Adam Hammond stopped 23 of 28 shots for New Jersey.
FLYERS 6, CANADIENS 3
MONTREAL (AP) — James van Reimsdyk had two goals and an assist, Ivan Provorov had a goal and an assist and Philadelphia snapped a six-game skid with a win over Montreal.
Oskar Lindblom, Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny had Philadelphia’s other goals. Bobby Brink had his first career multipoint game with two assists. Martin Jones made 31 saves.
Mike Hoffman, Jake Evans and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Carey Price made 28 saves as the Canadiens (20-47-11) lost their seventh straight.
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The Associated Press