Avs first to 50 wins

The Colorado Avalanche clinched a playoff spot with the help of two goals from Nathan MacKinnon in a 6-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.

It’s the fifth straight playoff berth for the Avs, who also became the first NHL team to 50 wins this season and have ripped off nine wins in 11 games.

MacKinnon scored his 23rd and 24th of the season, while J.T. Compher got his his 14th of the year.

Sabres 4, Hurricanes 2 — Victor Olofsson had a goal and an assist in the third period to lead Buffalo past Carolina.

Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens also scored for the Sabres.

Rangers 3, Devils 1 — Artemi Panarin set up two first-period power-play goals for his 64th and 65th assists of the season and New York beat rival New Jersey.

Chris Kreider scored his 47th goal of the season for the Rangers.

Panthers 7, Maple Leafs 6 —

Jonathan Huberdeau scored his second goal of the game in overtime and also had three assists, helping Florida overcome a four-goal deficit to beat Toronto.

Sam Reinhart scored twice, Aleksander Barkov had a goal and three assists, Claude Giroux got his first goal with Florida and Radko Gudas also scored.

Mitchell Marner had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs.

Predators 6, Wild 2 — Ryan Johansen’s first career hat trick led Nashville to a victory over Minnesota.

Roman Josi and Philip Tomasino had a goal and two assists, Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist and Juuse Saros made 47 saves for Nashville.

Senators 6, Canadiens 3 — Austin Watson scored twice and Ottawa had three goals in the third period to beat Montreal.

Blue Jackets 4, Flyers 2 — Justin Danforth scored the goahead goal late in the third period, Elvis Merzlikins stopped 47 shots and Columbus beat Philadelphia to end a seven-game skid.