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 wild card in the Eastern Conference 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 when he converted a perfect feed from David Pastrnak. Canadiens 6, Panthers 2 Brendan Gallagher enjoyed a career night with a goal and three assists to send the Canadiens to a 6-2 win over the Florida Panthers that allowed Montreal to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Paul Byron scored twice for the Canadiens, who also got goals from Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty and Phillip Danault. Lightning 5, Red Wings 3 Tampa Bay kept pace in a tight Eastern Conference wild-card race with a win over Detroit at Amalie Arena. J.T. Brown, Andrej Sustr, Alex Killorn, Jonathan Drouin and Yanni Gourde scored for the Lightning and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves. Wild 5, Senators 1 Nino Niederreiter scored twice, and rookie Joel Eriksson Ek picked up his third goal of the season in his first NHL game since November as Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak with a win over Ottawa. Alex Stalock finished 18 saves to pick up his first NHL victory since a Jan. 12, 2016, win for San Jose at Winnipeg. Chris Stewart added a pair of assists for the wild, who also got goals from Matt Dumba and Jason Pominville. Maple Leafs 3, Predators 1 Toronto used superior special-teams play to score a critical late-season win that could hamper Nashville's hopes of improving their postseason positioning. James van Riemsdyk, Auston Matthews and Connor Brown scored while Frederik Andersen made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs. Flyers 6, Islanders 3 Dale Weise and Wayne Simmonds each had a goal, an assist and a fight in the first period, and Philadelphia never looked back in a dismantling of New York. Sean Couturier and Simmonds each had a goal and two assists. Brayden Schenn picked up two assists, and Jordan Weal, Radko Gudas and Valtteri Filppula added goals for the Flyers, who won for the third straight game to keep their fading playoff hopes alive. Hurricanes 2, Blue Jackets 1 (OT) Carolina extended its point streak to a franchise-record 13 straight with an overtime win against Columbus. Jets 4, Ducks 3 (OT) Dustin Byfuglien scored with 12 seconds left in regulation and set up Mark Scheifele for the overtime winner as Winnipeg rallied from two goals down to beat Anaheim in a thriller. Blake Wheeler and Joel Armia also scored for the Jets. Oilers 3, Sharks 2 Patrick Maroon scored twice, and Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each extended their point streaks to nine game as Edmonton beat San Jose. — Agencies
