DETROIT - Auston Matthews scored twice to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs past the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 on Saturday night.

Matthews' second goal of the night at 18:51 of the third period gave Toronto a 5-3 lead, but proved to be the winner when Detroit's Mike Green tallied with 44.2 seconds left in regulation.

With two goals and an assist, Matthews tied Peter Ihnacak's Leafs rookie points record of 66, set in 1982-83.

James van Riemsdyk scored with 2:36 left in the third period to snap the 3-3 tie and put the Leafs ahead for good. Van Riemsdyk slipped a backhander past Detroit's Jimmy Howard.

Mitch Marner and William Nylander also scored for the Leafs, who moved into a second-place tie in the Atlantic Division with Ottawa.

Gustav Nyquist, Nick Jensen, and Niklas Kronwall had the other goals for the Red Wings.

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RALEIGH, N.C - Jason Spezza scored, Kari Lehtonen earned his third shutout of the season and the Dallas Stars beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 on Saturday night.

John Klingberg and Devin Shore added empty-netters and Lehtonen stopped 25 shots in his second shutout in six starts to help the Stars snap a two-game losing streak and deal a serious blow to the Hurricanes' already slim playoff chances.

Cam Ward stopped 21 shots for Carolina, which began four points behind Boston for the East's final playoff spot with six games left and Tampa Bay between the teams.

The Hurricanes failed to earn a point for the first time since losing at Colorado on March 7 - a club-record stretch of 13 straight games with either a win or an overtime loss. They fell to 2-4-2 against the bottom four teams in the Western Conference: Dallas, Vancouver, Arizona and Colorado.

Dallas scored more than two goals for just the third time since March 6 in earning just its 12th road win of the season.

Carolina, which scored an NHL-best 54 goals in March, was shut out for the first time since a 4-0 loss to Toronto on Feb. 19.

Spezza scored the game's first goal 4:46 into the second with a wrist shot from the circle that beat Ward high to his glove side. That gave Spezza 19 career goals against the Hurricanes.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes missed a prime chance earlier in the game. Dallas - and its league-worst penalty-kill unit - drew a minor midway through the first, but the Hurricanes came up empty on a 3-on-nobody rush after they caught the Stars on a line change.

NOTES:

The Hurricanes reassigned G Alex Nedeljkovic to their ECHL affiliate in Florida. Nedeljkovic was brought up Tuesday, one day after Eddie Lack was hurt at the end of an overtime loss to Detroit. ... Dallas LW Curtis McKenzie was back in Texas after a high stick he took near his eye two nights earlier at Boston caused him to bleed profusely on the ice.

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BOSTON - David Krejci scored after a poor clearing attempt by Florida goaltender Reto Berra, lifting the Boston Bruins over the Panthers 5-2 Saturday and helping them maintain an edge for a playoff spot heading into the regular season's final week.

Patrice Bergeron scored twice, Brad Marchand got his team-leading 39th goal and Noel Acciari also scored for the Bruins, who moved one point ahead of Toronto for third in the Atlantic Division. The Maple Leafs play later Saturday.

Boston entered the day with a three-point lead over Tampa Bay for the Eastern Conference's last wild-card spot.

Jaromir Jagr recorded his 765th career goal and Thomas Vanek also scored for the Panthers, who lost for the 11th time in 15 games and were eliminated from playoff contention earlier this week.

Krejci capitalized on the gaffe by Berra, moving Boston ahead 3-2 with 5:30 left in the second period. The goalie came far out of the crease, but his clearing pass from the right circle caromed off the boards directly to Krejci, who fired the puck into the empty net.

Tuukka Rask, coming off a career-tying seventh shutout this season in his last start, stopped 24 shots.

Marchand sealed it with a power-play score in the final two minutes. Bergeron added an empty-netter.

The Bruins had moved ahead 2-1 on Bergeron's reviewed goal midway into the second. The center scored off the rebound of Zdeno Chara's one-timer while Marchand was inside the crease. The goal stood even though it appeared Berra couldn't get across the crease on the shot with Marchand there.

Florida tied it 2-all on Jagr's goal. The 45-year-old forward beat Rask over his glove with a wrist shot from the slot.

Acciari stole the puck from defenseman Jakub Kindl, broke in while he was being hooked by Kindl for a delayed penalty and took a wrister that slipped into the net off Berra to make it 1-0.

Florida tied it early in the second when Nick Bjugstad's shot from the point caromed in off the leg of Vanek.

NOTES: Florida defenseman Keith Yandle played his 629th consecutive game, moving one behind Andy Hebenton for eighth on the NHL's all-time list... Boston forward Frank Vatrano missed his second straight with an undisclosed upper body injury... Panthers forward Jussi Jokinen turned 34-years old on Saturday, and teammate Reilly Smith 26... Interesting hit: Forty-year-old Chara kocked down Jagr... Panthers forward Shawn Thornton, a member of Boston's 2011 Cup winning team, played his last game in TD Garden. He's retiring after the season and has a job waiting for him in Florida's front office.

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CHICAGO - Artemi Panarin had two goals, Corey Crawford made 32 saves and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 on Friday night to reach the cusp of clinching the Central Division.

Panarin scored in the opening minute, then added an empty-netter with 44 seconds left for his 28th goal of the season. Marian Hossa also scored in the first period for Chicago, and Patrick Kane assisted on all three goals as Chicago extended its division lead to nine points over idle Minnesota.

The Wild have five games remaining and the Blackhawks have four.

Nick Foligno scored his 25th goal to end an eight-game drought and Sergei Bobrovksy made 21 saves, but the Blue Jackets lost for the second time in two nights.

Panarin and Hossa put Chicago ahead 2-1 after 20 minutes in a matchup of the teams with the NHL's second- and third-best records. The Blackhawks and Crawford played a smart, tidy game to deny the Blue Jackets a chance to gain ground on first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division.

Bobrovsky got his first regulation loss since Feb. 19 against Nashville. He had been 10-0-2 during the run and entered leading the NHL in wins, goals-against average and save percentage.

Coming off a 2-1 overtime loss at Carolina on Thursday night - with backup Joonas Korpisalo in net - the Blue Jackets didn't arrive at the their hotel in Chicago until about 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

The team left Raleigh-Durham International Airport on a chartered jet shortly after Thursday's game, but the plane was forced to turn back about 30 minutes into the flight because of a faulty generator. The Blue Jackets returned to the hotel they stayed at on Wednesday, then flew to Chicago on Friday.

Chicago took advantage by striking fast.

Panarin got a power-play goal 32 seconds in and four seconds after Columbus' Brandon Dubinksy was sent off for cross-checking Niklas Hjalmarsson.

After Jonathan Toews won a faceoff in the Blue Jackets' zone, Kane slipped the puck to Panarin in the slot. He beat Bobrovsky just over his glove with a quick shot.

The teams exchanged goals 22 seconds apart during a 4-on-4 late in the first period.

Foligno tied it 1-all with 2:45 left in the first from the left side of the crease. After taking Sam Gagner's pass from behind the net, he slipped the puck under Crawford.

Finishing a 2-on-1 break with Kane, Hossa's 26th goal put Chicago back in front 2-1 moments later. The 38-year-old faked Bobrovsky to the ice, cut across the crease and scored on a slick backhander.

Both goalies made a handful of alert saves in the scoreless second period, but neither was heavily tested.

Bobrovksy denied Hossa on a prime chance early in the third, then Crawford was sharp when needed - including on Gagner's deflection at 9:30 during a Columbus power play.

NOTES: Blackhawks C Artem Anisimov missed his ninth game (lower body), but coach Joel Quenneville said he hoped the 22-goal scorer would return for the playoffs. ... C Vinnie Hinostroza, recalled from Rockford of the AHL on Thursday, was among Chicago's scratches. ... Columbus coach John Tortorella said the team's flight turnaround was ''very nerve-wracking,'' but otherwise joked about the incident before Friday's game and hoped it might rally his team. ''When you hear the announcement: `It's an emergency, but we're OK,' where do you go with that?'' Tortorella said.

UP NEXT:

Blue Jackets: Host league-leading Washington on Sunday in a showdown of the top teams in the rugged Metropolitan.

Blackhawks: Host Boston on Sunday in their final regular-season home game. Chicago closes out the schedule with three road contests.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - James van Riemsdyk and Auston Matthews each scored a power-play goal, and Frederik Andersen made 29 saves to help the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Nashville Predators 3-1 on Thursday night.

Connor Brown added an empty-net goal with 58.4 seconds left as the Maple Leafs started a three-game road trip by sweeping the season series with Nashville. They also won their second straight and fifth in six games to remain in third place in the Atlantic Division.

Filip Forsberg scored his 30th of the season for Nashville. The Predators have lost two straight after a four-game winning streak.

Toronto is trying to hold off Boston, while the Predators needed a win to leapfrog St. Louis into third place in the Central Division. Nashville came in three points shy of its third straight playoff berth under coach Peter Laviolette.

It was the 1,000th game behind the bench for Laviolette, making him the 28th coach overall and just the second born in the United States to reach that mark in the NHL.

A quiet first period ended when Austin Watson took exception to a clean hit on teammate Mattias Ekholm and roughed Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin. That put the NHL's second-best power play on the man advantage, and Toronto needed only 13 seconds to convert as van Riemsdyk redirected a shot by Nikita Zaitsev past goalie Pekka Rinne at 18:42 for a 1-0 lead.

The Predators had three power plays in the second - a period in which they have outscored opponents by the biggest margin in the NHL (95-63). Yet they couldn't beat Andersen, who had a nice stop on a backhander by Kevin Fiala just before the third penalty on the Maple Leafs nearly midway through the period.

The Maple Leafs got their second man advantage when Nashville captain Mike Fisher slashed Tyler Bozak, and Toronto scored again. This time, Matthews added to his Toronto rookie record with his 36th goal of the season off a wrister as he skated up the slot just inside the left circle with 1:17 left in the second.

Andersen preserved the shutout with several nice saves in the third, including one in front from Fisher. The goaltender also killed off one last penalty when Roman Polak went in the box for holding - Andersen needed Morgan Rielly's help after the puck went off his arm and trickled near the goal line.

NOTES: Predators forward James Neal went to the locker room midway through the third period after taking a puck to the face in the neutral zone. ... Among the top 30 in games coached, Laviolette came into his 1,000th game ranked seventh in points percentage at 57.8 percent and one of 17 to win the Stanley Cup. ... It was the 10th time this season Toronto scored multiple power-play goals. The Maple Leafs had just six such games last season. ... Predators forward Craig Smith was scratched with an upper-body injury. Fisher returned after missing four games with an injury.

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BOSTON - Tuukka Rask made 27 saves for his seventh shutout of the season and the Boston Bruins beat the Dallas Stars 2-0 on Thursday night.

Boston won its third straight and stayed three points ahead of Tampa Bay for the second wildcard spot with one game in hand.

Rask has won two straight since struggling for a stretch. He had allowed 18 goals during a four-game losing streak.

Brad Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead when he jammed a shot past goalie Antti Niemi at 15:14 of the first period.

Niemi had 22 saves and is winless in his last five appearances.

Torey Krug added an insurance goal early in the second period when he converted a perfect feed from David Pastrnak.

Marchand added an assist and moved into third place in the scoring race, passing Washington's Nicklas Backstrom and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.

Dallas had its best opportunity at 11:08 of the third period when Boston's Kevan Miller got a double-minor for high-sticking Curtis McKenzie.

Dallas has three goals in its last three games.

NOTES: David Krejci played in his 700th game for the Bruins. ... Former Bruin Tyler Seguin played in his 300th game for the Stars and has two goals over the last 10 games. ... Boston F Frank Vatrano missed the game with an upper-body injury. ... McKenzie bled profusely and was helped off the ice.

UP NEXT

Stars: Travel to Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Bruins: Host the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

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PHILADELPHIA - Wayne Simmonds got his 30th goal of the season as the Philadelphia Flyers scored five times in a fight-filled first period on the way to a 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.

Dale Weise, Radko Gudas, Jordan Weal, Sean Couturier and Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Flyers, who won their third straight. Philadelphia began play six points out of a playoff spot but needing to jump four teams.

Cal Clutterbuck, Jason Chimera and Andrew Ladd had the goals for the Islanders, who lost their third in a row and seventh in the last 10 games. They fell into a tie with the Flyers with 82 points.

New York has six games remaining, while the Flyers have five.

Weise started the scoring 4:30 into a wild, record-setting first period for the Flyers by finishing a good pass from Couturier with a forehand from in front that went high over Thomas Greiss.

Couturier scored on a rebound 1:19 later to make it 2-0, and Greiss was pulled after allowing Gudas' slap shot from the point to get past him with 11:54 left in the first period.

Greiss slammed his stick into the side boards as he exited the ice in frustration.

Weise had an assist on Gudas' goal and became the fastest player in Flyers history to record a ''Gordie Howe hat trick'' - with a goal, an assist and a fight - when he dropped the gloves with Travis Hamonic with 11:32 remaining the period.

The Flyers were far from done.

Weal netted his team-leading sixth goal in March, and seventh since being called up from Lehigh Valley of the AHL on Jan. 25, when he followed his own miss and scored past Greiss' replacement, Jaroslav Halak.

Simmonds finished the dominant period with his milestone goal on a power play when Shayne Gostisbehere's slap shot deflected off his knee and then off Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk's left hip before crossing the goal line.

Simmonds then joined Weise with a Gordie Howe hat trick when he won a one-sided fight with Anders Lee with 6.3 seconds left in the period, marking the first time in the history of the franchise once known as the Broad Street Bullies that two players had Gordie Howe hat tricks in one period.

The five first-period goals were the most this season in one period for Philadelphia.

Clutterbuck shot high over Steve Mason early in the second to get the Islanders on the board. But that was the only goal New York could manage despite outshooting Philadelphia 22-3 in the period.

Chimera netted his 18th of the season 40 seconds into the third period on a wrister from in front after the puck caromed hard off the back boards from Calvin de Haan's slap shot. Ladd made it 5-3 with 3:58 remaining with a wrist shot that deflected off Mason's back and in.

Filppula's empty-netter with 1:41 left completed the scoring. Simmonds picked up his second assist on that goal.

NOTES: Philadelphia won three of four in the season series. . Boychuk returned after missing the previous 12 games with a foot injury. . Simmonds scored 32 goals last season and has 119 over the last four seasons. . De Haan had two assists. . Chimera bettered Brandon Manning in a third-period fight.

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TAMPA, Fla. - Alex Killorn and Jonathan Drouin scored power-play goals 1:51 apart late in the second period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Thursday night.

J.T. Brown, Andrej Sustr and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves.

Tampa Bay, which played without 38-goal scorer Nikita Kucherov due to illness, swept the five-game season series with the Red Wings.

Detroit got goals from Frans Nielsen, Danny DeKeyser and Mike Green. Petr Mrazek stopped 26 shots.

After Sustr put Tampa Bay up 2-1 early in the second, DeKeyser was involved in the final three goals of the period.

DeKeyser tied it at 2 on his first goal in 25 games, a shot that went off Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin.

Mrazek stopped Killorn's power-play shot, but DeKeyser put the puck into his own net while attempting to clear it at 16:13.

With DeKeyser off for cross-checking, Drouin made it 4-2 on a shot from the right circle with 1:56 left.

Gourde scored early in the third period, and Green followed with a power-play goal minutes later.

Nielsen and Brown, who stopped a 45-game goal drought, had first-period goals.

Henrik Zetterberg assisted on DeKeyser's goal for his 900th NHL point, coming in his 995th game.

NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos, out since having right knee surgery in November, has been upgraded to day to day. ... The Red Wings announced that C Luke Glendening will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle/foot. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson (lower-body injury, 10 games) has resumed skating with the team in practice. ... Red Wings RW Anthony Mantha left with an upper-body injury after fighting Tampa Bay D Luke Witkowski in the first.

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China wants to get its hockey program up to par before hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The NHL is using that as a starting point for a long-term vision to turn the country into a hockey nation.

The league is making the country of almost 1.4 billion people a top priority internationally. The Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks will play exhibition games in Shanghai and Beijing in September, and the games and the Olympics are only the beginning of what the NHL hopes is a bigger investment.

''The way we're looking at it is it's really not about 2022. It's about 2032 and '42 and so on and really building the game,'' NHL executive vice president of media and international strategy David Proper said by phone from Beijing. ''It's doing a disservice ultimately to the building of hockey in China to just target a five-year range and not be looking past that.''

At a news conference announcing the exhibition games, commissioner Gary Bettman called them ''the beginning of what we believe will be a very long-term relationship.''

The upcoming Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next year has created conflict for the league, which has expressed reluctance to stop its season to play 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in a place that isn't necessarily a hockey market. The NHL may yet decide to go to Korea because of players' interest but also in part because of the lure of Beijing.

The NHL looks at the NBA, which has had a foothold in China for decades, as a blueprint for the future. But before there's a hockey version of Yao Ming, Chinese fans need to learn more about the sport.

Andong Song, the first Chinese player drafted by an NHL team, said most people in his homeland didn't know much about hockey even when the New York Islanders took him in the sixth round in June of 2015. Song was part of China's presentation to the International Olympic Committee alongside Yao and said getting the Games in 2022 got people buzzing about hockey and other winter sports.

From the initial meetings with Chinese government officials, the league and NHL Players' Association saw untapped potential.

''The exciting thing is you're starting from a baseline of zero, so any effect that we have is going to be a positive effect,'' NHL chief revenue officer and executive VP of global partnerships Keith Wachtel said by phone from Beijing. ''The question is just how much, and that's going to be about the dedication of resources that we have.''

While the exact financial investment the league is making in China was not revealed, it's substantial.

Proper said the league will put on at least 15 clinics in China this year in addition to what teams might also be doing. The Canucks, Kings, Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Washington Capitals have already conducted camps for young Chinese players.

As China aims for 2022, Proper considers it a ''perfect storm'' of a motivated government and private sector combined with a league that wants to spread out far beyond North America and Europe.

''When somebody comes to you and says, 'We are committed to 300 million people playing winter sports and hockey is one of the primary winter sports we want to focus on,' you have to make that country a priority and you really have to kind of figure out how to help them as best they can to achieve their goals,'' Proper said.

The NHL is getting a lift from goaltender-turned-billionaire Zhou Yunjie, chairman of metal can manufacturing company ORG Packaging, in making strides in China. The league signed a multiyear deal with ORG Packaging and will use some of that money to help refine Chinese hockey infrastructure while trying to increase exposure, sell jerseys and make an impact.

The ultimate goal is talent development, which will spawn fandom and interest if a Chinese player turns into an NHL star.

''We think that it's only a matter of time till we're able to get a Chinese national into the NHL,'' Wachtel said. ''That will be the proof point when millions of kids are playing the sport in China and one day that you see one of those kids that was in a clinic that was run by the NHL and ORG and all our other partners that that kid is playing in the NHL.''

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PITTSBURGH - Artemi Panarin and Richard Panik started a four-goal first period for Chicago, and the Blackhawks moved closer to locking up the Central Division title with a 5-1 victory over the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.

Marcus Kruger and Marian Hossa also scored during an explosive first period as the Blackhawks moved nine points clear of second-place Minnesota with five games left in the regular season. Tanner Kero added a breakaway goal in the third. Patrick Kane picked up two assists to move past Sidney Crosby and into second place in the NHL scoring race.

Corey Crawford stopped 31 shots for Chicago, which beat the Penguins in regulation on the road for the first time since 1997.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 31 saves but received little help outside of Bryan Rust's third-period goal. The defending Stanley Cup champions saw their winless streak reach four games, and their chances to catch first-place Washington atop the Metropolitan Division took another hit.

Pittsburgh is struggling with the playoffs two weeks away while missing injured regulars Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Ron Hainsey, Jake Guentzel, and Carl Hagelin. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks are surging.

Chicago overwhelmed the Penguins seemingly from the opening faceoff, showcasing all the speed and creativity that have the Blackhawks looking like the best team in the Western Conference and a serious threat to add to the three Cups they've captured since 2010.

The Penguins started Fleury over Matt Murray, who has struggled recently while Fleury has regained his form since the team opted to hold onto him at the trading deadline. Given a chance to perhaps make serious inroads on Murray's grasp of the No. 1 spot, Fleury instead spent the opening 20 minutes trying to contend with a seemingly endless series of odd-man rushes that left the Penguins flat-footed and the Blackhawks rolling.

Panarin opened the scoring 3:23 in when he banked in a shot from in close off Fleury's right leg. The goal was the easy part. The hard part came courtesy of Kane, who darted behind the Pittsburgh net preparing to attempt a wraparound only to drop a backhand pass to Panarin at the left post. Fleury, believing Kane still had the puck, was caught looking the other way while Panarin executed the hockey version of a lay-up, gently flipping it off Fleury and into the net.

Panik doubled Chicago's lead 14:39 into the first when he powered home a shot from the slot past Fleury's outstretched glove. Kruger's fourth of the year with 55 seconds left in the first came courtesy of a deft touch pass from Kane. Hossa finished off a 3-on-1 by firing it by Fleury with 16 seconds left, and Chicago's 20-minute clinic was complete.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan switched up the lines but stuck with Fleury, who settled down, but by then the damage was already done.

NOTES: Chicago tied a franchise record with its 24th road win of the season. ... The Blackhawks went 0 for 4 on the power play. The Penguins were 0 for 2. ... The Penguins last dropped consecutive games by four goals on Jan. 3 and Jan. 5, 2009. ... Pittsburgh's last four-game winless streak came in Sullivan's first four games on the job in December 2015.

UP NEXT

Blackhawks: Host Columbus on Friday. The Blue Jackets edged Chicago 3-2 on Oct. 21.

Penguins: Visit the New York Rangers on Friday. Pittsburgh has won two of the first three meetings this season.

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