Flyers keep moving up in East standings

Claude Giroux scored twice, and Carter Hart stopped 26 shots to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to their fifth straight win, 5-2 over the New York Rangers on Friday night.

The Flyers have been sensational of late as they surge up the Eastern Conference standings. They are an impressive 23-5-4 at home, and Hart improved to 18-2-2 at Wells Fargo Center — 14-1 over his past 15 starts.

Sean Couturier, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Hayes also scored to help the Flyers beat the Rangers for the eighth time in the past nine games of the series.

Jesper Fast and Brett Howden scored for the Rangers, and Alexandar Georgiev — starting for the second straight night — finished with 35 saves. The Rangers came into the game with a franchise-record nine straight road wins, and nine wins in their past 10 overall. They trail Columbus — which lost 5-0 to Minnesota — by two points for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers’ playoff push suffered a blow when forward Chris Kreider suffered a fractured foot in the first period. He appeared to get hurt when he blocked a shot by Phillipe Myers and could miss significant time. The 28-year-old Kreider just signed a seven-year contract extension reportedly worth $45 million on Monday. Kreider has 24 goals and 21 assists for 45 points in 63 games this season. Kreider was a 2009 first-round draft pick and has played his entire career with New York.

WILD 5, BLUE JACKETS 0 >> Goalie Alex Stalock stopped 24 shots for his fourth shutout of the season, and Minnesota beat

Columbus for the second time this week.

Zach Parise and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and an assist to help the Wild win its third straight and improve to 12-5-1 in its past 18. The Wild moved within a point of a wild card in the crowded Western Division.

The injury-plagued Blue Jackets lost for the 10th time in 11 games (1-5-5) but still hold the second wild card in the East. Wild goalie Joonas Korpisalo, starting for the first time since a knee injury Dec. 29, gave up four goals on 15 shots before being pulled with 7:30 left in the second period. Matiss Kivlenieks replaced him and had 10 saves.

AVALANCHE 3, HURRICANES 2 >> Samuel Girard scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:37 left in the third period, and Colorado won its fifth straight.

Tyson Jost scored twice for the Avalanche, and Pavel Francouz stopped 45 shots to win his fifth consecutive start. Colorado won its seventh consecutive road game, matching the longest road winning streak in franchise history.

The Hurricanes remained two points out of wild-card position in the East. Carolina got two goals from Teuvo Teravainen in the third period to tie the score but fell for the second straight game to a top team from the Western Conference.

OILERS’ GREEN (KNEE) TO MISS 3-4 WEEKS >> Edmonton Oilers defenseman Mike Green is expected to miss three to four weeks with a sprained MCL, the team announced. Green, who was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings prior to the trade deadline on Monday, was injured two days later in Edmonton’s 3-0 loss to the Golden Knights in Las Vegas.

The Oilers enter play on Friday in third place in the Pacific Division.