A playoff spot was only the beginning. The Edmonton Oilers want more. Home-ice advantage, in particular.

A 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday has the club within a point of Anaheim for first place in the Pacific Division, and Edmonton's feeling really good about its game right now.

Four wins a row, and eight wins in their last nine, in which they've outscored the opposition 37-17. Seven wins in a row at home, their last loss at Rogers Place coming March 12. A Pacific-best plus-30 goal differential. Yeah, things are good right now in Edmonton.

"We have to go through these teams in the playoffs and this is a big statement game for us," Cam Talbot said after the game. The goaltender was superb, again, stopping 38-of-40 shots.

Connor McDavid scored a brilliant shorthanded goal and added an assist, eclipsing the 90-point mark for the first time.

"We want to play these games going into the playoffs," the captain said. "We want to ramp up our game."

Guess who the Oilers play next? The Ducks, on Saturday, at home, with first place on the line.

You're not dreaming, Edmonton. Enjoy.

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All in all, Thursday was about as brutal a night as possible for the New York Islanders.

After the club fell behind 3-0 only eight minutes into the first period in Philadelphia, defenseman Travis Hamonic tried to get his teammates going by asking Dale Weise to drop the gloves. Weise obliged, the two players chucked knuckles, and they even gave each other respect at the end for a spirited bout.

Only problem: Hamonic appears to have hurt his left hand in the fight. He didn't play after the tilt, logging only 4:38 of ice time. He was spotted after the game, and it didn't look good.

The Islanders lost 6-3, and if Hamonic's done, an uphill climb for the Islanders to make the playoffs only gets, well, more uphill.

The 26-year-old has three goals and 14 points in 49 games, and went into action Thursday playing 20:47 a night.

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The Ottawa Senators aren't panicking - not yet - but they felt the need to talk some things through after another rough game Thursday.

With the opposition closing in for second place in the Atlantic Division, the club held a team meeting after being slapped around by the Minnesota Wild, according to Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

The Sens lost 5-1, and saw each playoff hopeful in the Atlantic win. The Canadiens clinched their playoff spot by beating Florida, the Lightning kept their hopes alive by taking down Detroit, the Bruins shut out Dallas, and the Maple Leafs secured a huge win on the road in Nashville.

Toronto, in fact, is now only two points back of the Senators, with both teams having played 76 games. Boston's three back, though Ottawa has a game in hand.

The end of Ottawa's schedule is far from kind, and the Senators have only a point to show through three games on a difficult five-game road trip. There are two more stops, in Winnipeg and Detroit - games against two non-playoff teams that Ottawa must take at least three points from. Four of Ottawa's remaining six games are away from home.

"They really took it to us," Dion Phaneuf said of Ottawa's effort Thursday against Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune's Michael Russo. "The score reflects really the whole game and if you look at how we got beat, they had more than us."

Ottawa finished with only 40 shot attempts and 19 shots on goal.

The Sens have been a strong club on the road this season, with 21 wins, but they're going to have to dig deep down the stretch, especially with a massive April 6 game looming against the Bruins in Boston.

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Doug Weight's New York Islanders suffered a crushing defeat Thursday in Philadelphia, the result almost guaranteed only 10 minutes into the game.

It was 4-0 for the Philadelphia Flyers after 9:19 of action, and 5-0 after 20 minutes, the Isles eventually dropping a 6-3 decision. After the game, Weight wasn't pleased. In fact, he was flummoxed, because his team's first period didn't add up.

"What do you say? Nothing. It's just shit," Weight said, according to Newsday's Arthur Staple. "It's not like they make tic-tac-toe plays - they had four chances in the first and it's 5-0. Four! Do the math.

"We worked, but it doesn't really matter," he added. "A piss-poor first."

That's about as accurate an assessment gets.

The Islanders have lost three in a row and are six points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with a game in hand. The math, though, that Weight referenced, isn't pretty.

New York will host the New Jersey Devils in Brooklyn on Friday. Lose that one, and it's done, no matter what the numbers say.

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Have a night, Mark Scheifele.

The Winnipeg Jets superstar continued his breakout season Thursday in fine fashion, hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career with an overtime winner upstairs past Jonathan Bernier.

Thursday also happened to be Scheifele's bobblehead night at the MTS Centre, and his finisher capped an impressive comeback. The Jets trailed the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 with under 10 minutes to play in the third period, with Dustin Byfuglien tying the game up with only 12 seconds to go.

Scheifele played a whopping 26:47, and is up to 78 points, with career-high totals across the board.

At 24, he's only getting started.

As for the Ducks, the loser point is a big one for them, as they'll remain in first place in an ultra-tight Pacific Division on Friday morning.

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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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By recording an assist Thursday versus Detroit, Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman now stands alone in the franchise record books.

Hedman's helper was his 66th point of the season, giving him the highest single-season total by a defenseman in Lightning history, passing the mark Roman Hamrlik set in 1995-96, per NHL Public Relations.

It goes without saying that this has been the most productive season of Hedman's career, smashing his personal best of 55 points set in 2013-14.

Hedman trails only Brent Burns (73) and Erik Karlsson (68) in points by a blueliner this season, and is proving at 26years old, he is indeed the defensive pillar Tampa Bay coveted when drafting him second overall in 2009.

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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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Filip Forsberg sniped his way into the Nashville Predators' history books Thursday night.

With just a ridiculous amount of time and space, Forsberg wired his 30th goal of the season over the shoulder of Frederik Andersen, becoming the first Predator in franchise history to record multiple 30-goal seasons, his first coming in 2015-16.

The feat is all the more impressive considering 28 of Forsberg's tallies have come since December 1st, more than making up for a disappointing start to the campaign.

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