NHL roundup: Flyers stay hot vs. Senators

Claude Giroux continued his surge with a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers continued their roll with a 5-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre.

Giroux has 16 points in his last nine games after setting up defenseman Ivan Provorov's goal 28 seconds into the game and scoring on a breakaway in the third period.

He helped the Flyers gain a point in their 11th straight game (9-0-2) and improve to 25-8-3 in their last 36 games since a 10-game losing streak.

Defenseman Brandon Manning contributed a goal and two assists during a three-goal third period for Philadelphia.

Rookie defenseman Robert Hagg and rookie Nolan Patrick scored Philadelphia's other goals.

Flames 5, Avalanche 1

Michael Frolik set the tone with a goal just 18 seconds into the game and Calgary helped its playoff chances with a victory over Colorado at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.

Mark Giordano, Sean Monahan, Troy Brouwer and Mikael Backlund also scored for the Flames. Jon Gillies started for the second straight game for Calgary and finished with 28 saves.

Nathan MacKinnon scored his 26th goal of the season for Colorado, which has dropped four of its last five matchups.

Blue Jackets 3, Blackhawks 2

Josh Anderson broke a tie with his 18th goal at 11:14 of the third period, lifting Columbus over Chicago at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Boone Jenner drew the only assist on Anderson's game-winner, which enabled Columbus to edge two points ahead of the New York Islanders for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Sergei Bobrovsky made 11 of his 31 saves in the third period to pick up the win, including a late stop of a Jonathan Toews wrister.

Anderson picked up the puck at the red line and carried into the left faceoff circle, firing a wrister that appeared to strike Anton Forsberg between his right arm and chest before it squirted over the goal line.

Capitals 5, Sabres 1

Evgeny Kuznetsov had a goal and three assists and Alex Ovechkin scored twice as Washington defeated Buffalo.

Ovechkin played in his 983rd game, which tied Calle Johansson for the top spot in franchise history. Ovechkin already leads the franchise by comfortable margins in goals (596) and points (1,105).

The victory let the Caps (77 points) jump over Pittsburgh (76) and the Flyers (76) for first in the Metropolitan Division. Florida beat the Penguins 6-5 Saturday.

Red Wings 3, Hurricanes 1

In a matchup of two of the most goal-starved teams in the NHL of late, Danny DeKeyser, Henrik Zetterberg and Trevor Daley each scored to lift Detroit to a home win over Carolina.

It was just the second time in the last seven games the Red Wings have scored more than two goals in a game.

Detroit also snapped a three-game losing streak.

Jets 5, Stars 3

Patrik Laine scored two goals in a six-minute span of the second period, and Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists as Winnipeg swamped Dallas.

The Jets won for the sixth time in eight games and pulled into a tie with the idle Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division. Winnipeg is 4-0-1 in its past five road games and has beaten Dallas seven straight times, including three times this season by a combined score of 14-5.

Dallas is 2-4-0 in its past six games and have just eight goals in that span (including being shut out twice). The Stars remained one point behind Minnesota for third place in the Central Division and two points ahead of St. Louis for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Panthers 6, Penguins 5

Evgenii Dadonov scored a hat trick to lift Florida over Pittsburgh.

Vincent Trocheck, Jamie McGinn and Derek MacKenzie also scored for the Panthers.

Evgeni Malkin scored twice for the Penguins, and Carl Hagelin, Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust also tallied.

Maple Leafs 4, Bruins 3

Ron Hainsey scored the winner with 1:24 left in the game and Toronto extended its home win streak to nine games with a victory over Boston.

Toronto has also won 14 of its past 17 games and is surging as the playoffs near. Nazem Kadri had two power-play goals and Mitch Marner also scored for the Maple Leafs, who outshot the Bruins 36-23.

Brad Marchand had two goals for the Bruins, who are 2-2-0 during a five-game road trip. They are 17-3-2 in their past 21 games on the road. Boston has gone 0-for-12 on the power play during this road trip. The Bruins play at Buffalo on Sunday before returning home.

--Field Level Media