The Edmonton Oilers had plenty of doubters heading into 2016-17, but the former basement-dwellers simply continue to impress.

They did so again Saturday night, temporarily laying claim to the Pacific Division lead with a 3-2 overtime win over the Anaheim Ducks.

Edmonton withstood a fine performance from netminder John Gibson, who played his first game for Anaheim since March 10. Gibson and Co. nearly shut the dominant Oilers' offense down, but veteran Milan Lucic tallied his 19th of the season to tie the game with just two minutes remaining in the third.

With the tilt extending to overtime, McDavid stepped up for his club once again, capitalizing on a gaffe from Ryan Getzlaf before setting up Leon Draisaitl for the winner in extra time.

It was just the latest impressive performance for a club that has dealt with its fair share of doubt in recent years.

Whether it was bringing in oft-maligned defender Kris Russell, signing Lucic to a hefty seven-year contract, or trading away star winger Taylor Hall for rearguard Adam Larsson, Edmonton was undoubtedly expected to falter in 2016-17.

But with just a handful of games remaining, they sit atop their division, the playoffs in sight.

Stellar season-long efforts from McDavid and Cam Talbot have undoubtedly been the central reasons for Edmonton's ascent, but there's no denying the fact that - despite the chorus of jeers - general manager Peter Chiarelli managed to put together a fairly promising squad after all.

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Kari Lehtonen hopes it isn't too little, too late.

The Dallas Stars netminder has evidently saved his best for the season's closing weeks, using the stretch drive to string together his top performances of the campaign.

On Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes, Lehtonen recorded his second shutout in his past six outings, turning aside 25 Carolina shots.

No doubt Lehtonen has come on strong in his last half-dozen starts:

In all, Lehtonen is 4-1-1 in his past six outings, putting together a stellar .950 save percentage alongside a minuscule 1.32 goals-against average. The Finnish netminder was honored Monday as the second star of the week.

Like fellow Stars goalie Antti Niemi, Lehtonen is signed through next season, but the possibility remains neither could return as the Stars look to reshape their crease.

But Lehtonen's recent stretch may be enough to recover some of his lost shine. After rotating his netminders for much of the season, Stars coach Lindy Ruff finally has some consistency between the pipes, and Lehtonen's late-season push could be enough to save his spot next year.

Following Saturday's 3-0 victory over the Hurricanes, Ruff told reporters, "When the guys in front of him play well and limit the high-quality opportunities, Kari is the type of goaltender that can feed off them."

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Through the remainder of the regular season, we'll take a look at how the night's action impacts the playoff race, highlighting which teams' postseason odds went up or down significantly.

The Boston Bruins appear poised to end their modest two-year postseason drought. The Bruins, who last qualified for the playoffs in 2014, took a 5-2 win Saturday over the Florida Panthers, moving to 90 points on the season.

The Bruins hold the second wild-card seed and are four points up on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who weren't as successful Saturday, falling in overtime to the Montreal Canadiens. Tampa Bay holds one game in hand on Boston.

In the West, all but one seed is locked in. The Nashville Predators will have a chance to lay claim to the final spot Sunday versus the St. Louis Blues. A single point by Nashville would eliminate the Los Angeles Kings from playoff contention.

To see percentages for the entire NHL, visit Sports Club Stats.

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It's safe to say Patrick Maroon has picked up a few tricks playing on Connor McDavid's wing. Among them: the slickest of hands.

Maroon put his new moves on display Saturday during the Edmonton Oilers' matchup with the Anaheim Ducks, embarrassing a couple defenders before floating a pass through the slot for McDavid.

The captain's finish marked his 29th goal of the season, and took his league-leading point total to 92.

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Another day, another record for Auston Matthews.

The Toronto Maple Leafs phenom recorded two goals and an assist in a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Red Wings Saturday, with the second tally tying Matthews with Peter Ihnacak for the most points in a season by a Toronto freshman.

Ihnacak set the mark during the 1982-83 campaign. With five games remaining on the season, plenty of time remains for Matthews to claim sole possession of the record.

As impressive as the achievement is, it wasn't even the only record Matthews set on Saturday night:

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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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The Montreal Canadiens are the class of the Atlantic Division, and they aren't about to let the rest of the Eastern Conference forget it.

Canadiens winger Alexander Radulov made sure of this on Saturday night, wiring home a monstrous one-timer in overtime to clinch a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The tally, set up by captain Max Pacioretty, was Radulov's 17th of the season, and just his second game-winner. Montreal's victory gives them 45 wins in 2016-17, as well as a division-leading 99 points.

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Yanni Gourde is having quite the rookie season for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The 25-year-old, who's been toiling away in the AHL since 2011, debuted to little fanfare back in December. Since making his way back to the Lightning roster in early March, Gourde has come up with a few spectacular offensive efforts.

He's ramped things up as of late, however, coming up with three goals in as many games - the latest coming during Tampa Bay's Saturday night tilt against the Montreal Canadiens.

Gourde's goal came by way of a slick top-shelf deflection that found its way past Carey Price, which wound up being Tampa Bay's only goal of the night.

Gourde is simply the latest in a long line of young Lightning forwards showing offensive promise. That's nothing new for Tampa Bay, as they already possess two of the game's finest goal-scorers, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, as well as one of the brightest playmakers of the future in Jonathan Drouin.

The odds of the Lightning making the playoffs this season remain slim, but with depth options like Gourde doing their part, the club might just have enough offensive juice to hold on until reinforcements return to the lineup.

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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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