Flyers extend winning streak to seven games

GIROUX, VORACEK HELP FLYERS EMERGE FOR SEVENTH STRAIGHT WIN

* Down 2-0 in the second period, the Flyers scored three times in a span of 72 seconds to take the lead. Elias notes that it was the fastest trio of goals by Philadelphia since Feb. 14, 2009, when the club scored three times in a span of 67 seconds during the third period of a 5-1 win against the New York Islanders.
* Voracek (10-18-28) and Giroux (9-19-28) share the team lead (and fifth place in the NHL scoring race) with 28 points in 29 games.

THURSDAY'S RESULTS

Home Team in Caps
Colorado 4, BOSTON 2
NY ISLANDERS 3, St. Louis 2
PHILADELPHIA 6, Edmonton 5
MONTREAL 5, New Jersey 2
Vancouver 5, TAMPA BAY 1
Pittsburgh 5, FLORIDA 1
NY Rangers 2, WINNIPEG 1
DALLAS 5, Nashville 2
Calgary 2, ARIZONA 1 (OT)
Carolina 3, LOS ANGELES 1

FOLLOW THE LEADER

The Pittsburgh Penguins, Dallas Stars and Islanders earned victories thanks to key contributions by their captains:
* Sidney Crosby (1-1-2) factored on each of the Penguins' first two goals, both within the opening five minutes of play, to power Pittsburgh to its fourth consecutive victory. Crosby, who shares the League lead with 18 goals, extended his point streak to six games (4-6-10). He paces all players with 45-42-87 in 65 regular-season games during the 2016 calendar year, 10 points more than the next-closest player (Patrick Kane: 31-46-77 in 71 GP).
* Jamie Benn (1-2-3) opened the scoring with his 200th career goal to guide the Stars to their fourth victory in their past six home games. Benn, a fifth-round selection (No. 129) by Dallas in the 2007 NHL Draft, became the 10th player in Stars/North Stars history with 200 career goals and the second player from his draft class to reach that milestone (also Patrick Kane: 259).

* John Tavares evaded a defender by swapping his stick behind his back to score a highlight-reel and help the Islanders extend their point streak to six games (5-0-1). Tavares leads the team with 8-13-21 in 26 games and also shares the team lead in goals; he's tied with Anders Lee,who had New York's other two goals on Thursday.

DOAN BECOMES FRANCHISE ASSISTS LEADER

Shane Doan notched his 554th career assist to move past Thomas Steen (553) and become the Arizona Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets franchise leader in that category. In doing so, Elias notes that Doan became just the fifth player to lead a current NHL franchise in each of the following categories: games played (1,492), goals (399), assists, points (953), game-winning goals (69) and power-play goals (126). The others: Ron Francis (CAR/HFD), Mike Modano (DAL/MNS), Rick Nash (CBJ) and Joe Sakic (COL/QUE).

CANADIENS CONTINUE HOT START AT HOME

Torrey Mitchell scored twice to help the Montreal Canadiens (18-6-3, 39 points) regain sole possession of first place in the NHL and improve to 13-1-1 at Bell Centre.
* Via Elias, this marks the fifth time in Montreal's 99-year NHL history that the Canadiens have won at least 13 of their first 15 home games in a season. It's the second time in the expansion era (since 1967-68). The other such instances: 1936-37 (13-2-0), 1943-44 (13-0-2), 1953-54 (14-1-0) and 1984-85 (13-1-1).
* Carey Price (19 saves) earned his NHL-best 15th win and is 25-5-1 in his past 31 appearances since the start of 2015-16 (1.92 GAA, .938 SV%, 4 SO).

LOOSE PUCKS

Chad Johnson made 27 saves and Dougie Hamilton scored in overtime to help the Calgary Flames earn their fifth straight win and extend their point streak to six games (5-0-1). Johnson also pushed his personal win streak to five games and is 8-1-0 in his past nine games (1.65 goals-against average, .948 save percentage, two shutouts). … The Colorado Avalanche used an early 3-0 lead to snap a six-game skid (0-5-1) and improve to 10-0-1 in their past 11 visits to Boston, dating to Feb. 2, 1999 (BOS: 0-9-2), including nine straight wins. …Ryan Millermade 38 saves and Jayson Megna and Jack Skille each scored twice to lead the Vancouver Canucks to victory at Tampa Bay. … Derek Ryan (2-0-2) helped the Carolina Hurricanes pick up a point for the third straight game (2-0-1). … Kevin Hayes scored the go-ahead goal with 69 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the New York Rangers to victory. … Connor McDavid (1-1-2) had his NHL-best 12th multiple-point game of the season. He leads the NHL with 12-26-38, nine points ahead of Sidney Crosby (18-11-29) and Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov (13-16-29). . . . Boston's David Pastrnak scored twice in a span of 30 seconds and shares the NHL lead in goals with Crosby (18). … Florida's Jaromir Jagr (755-1,127-1,882) scored a goal to move within five points of tying Mark Messier (694-1,193-1,887) for second place in NHL history. … Penguins goaltender Matt Murray (28 saves) improved to 9-2-0 in 11 games. … Flames forward Sean Monahan (3-5-8) and Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien (1-6-7) each extended point streaks to six games. … Dillon Simpson, son of Hockey Night in Canada'sCraig Simpson, made his NHL debut with the Oilers. …
Wayne Gretzky will make a guest appearance on "The Simpsons"
this Sunday.

SNEAK PEEK AT FRIDAY'S ACTION

All Times Eastern
Washington @ Buffalo, 7 p.m., MSG-B, CSN-DC
Columbus @ Detroit, 7:30 p.m., FS-D+, FS-O
St. Louis @ New Jersey, 7:30 p.m., MSG, FS-MW
Edmonton @ Minnesota, 8 p.m., FS-N, SNW
NY Rangers @ Chicago, 8:30 p.m., NHLN, CSN-CH, MSG+
San Jose @ Anaheim, 10 p.m., SN, PRIME, CSN-CA