Blue Jackets hold off Flyers
Blue Jackets 4, Flyers 2: Justin Danforth scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period, Elvis Merzlikins stopped 47 shots and visiting Columbus beat Philadelphia Tuesday night to end a seven-game skid.
Sean Kuraly added an empty-netter for Columbus in the final seconds.
Rangers 3, Devils 1: Artemi Panarin set up two first-period power-play goals for his 64th and 65th assists of the season and visiting New York Rangers posted a victory over crossriver rival New Jersey.
Chris Kreider scored his 47th goal of the season and Ryan Strome got one in his return from an injury, while Alexandar Georgiev made 20 saves in winning his fifth straight start. New York improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games.
Sabres 4, Hurricanes 2: Victor Olofsson had a goal and an assist in the third period to lead host Buffalo past Carolina.
Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Dylan Cozens also scored for the Sabres, and Craig Anderson made 32 saves in the opening game of a homeand-home set with the Hurricanes.
Earning a point for the ninth time in 10 games (6-1-3), Buffalo held off being eliminated from the playoffs for an NHL-record 11th consecutive season.
Senators 6, Canadiens 3: Austin Watson scored twice and visiting Ottawa Senators had three goals in the third period of a win over Montreal.
Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Colin White also scored for Ottawa. Anton Forsberg made 27 saves as the Sens downed the Habs for the first time this season.
Avalanche 6, Penguins 4: Visiting Colorado clinched a playoff spot with the help of two goals from Nathan MacKinnon in a win against Pittsburgh.
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.
Red Wings 5, Bruins 3: Jakub Vrána had a goal and an assist, Alex Nedeljkovic made a season-high 47 saves and had an assist, and host Detroit defeated Boston.
The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for Detroit and halted Boston’s three-game win streak.
Panthers 7, Maple Leafs 6 (OT): Jonathan Huberdeau scored his second goal of the game in overtime and also had three assists, helping host Florida overcome a four-goal deficit to beat Toronto.
The Atlantic Division-leading Panthers trailed 5-1 midway through the second period before roaring back. 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.
Predators 6, Wild 2: Ryan Johansen’s first career hat trick led host Nashville 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, winners of three of four as they try to keep pace in the tight Western Conference playoff race. Filip Forsberg had three assists and Mattias Ekholm added two.
Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and an assist for Minnesota. Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves.