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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TAMPA, Fla. - Alex Killorn and Jonathan Drouin scored power-play goals 1:51 apart late in the second period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Thursday night.

J.T. Brown, Andrej Sustr and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves.

Tampa Bay, which played without 38-goal scorer Nikita Kucherov due to illness, swept the five-game season series with the Red Wings.

Detroit got goals from Frans Nielsen, Danny DeKeyser and Mike Green. Petr Mrazek stopped 26 shots.

After Sustr put Tampa Bay up 2-1 early in the second, DeKeyser was involved in the final three goals of the period.

DeKeyser tied it at 2 on his first goal in 25 games, a shot that went off Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin.

Mrazek stopped Killorn's power-play shot, but DeKeyser put the puck into his own net while attempting to clear it at 16:13.

With DeKeyser off for cross-checking, Drouin made it 4-2 on a shot from the right circle with 1:56 left.

Gourde scored early in the third period, and Green followed with a power-play goal minutes later.

Nielsen and Brown, who stopped a 45-game goal drought, had first-period goals.

Henrik Zetterberg assisted on DeKeyser's goal for his 900th NHL point, coming in his 995th game.

NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos, out since having right knee surgery in November, has been upgraded to day to day. ... The Red Wings announced that C Luke Glendening will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle/foot. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson (lower-body injury, 10 games) has resumed skating with the team in practice. ... Red Wings RW Anthony Mantha left with an upper-body injury after fighting Tampa Bay D Luke Witkowski in the first.

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No collapse this time around.

The Montreal Canadiens booked their spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 victory Thursday over the Florida Panthers.

Claude Julien, who took over for Michel Therrien in mid-February, improved to 13-5-1 in his return to the Canadiens' bench.

Montreal will play in the postseason for the fourth time in the last five springs. The club advanced to the Eastern Conference finals in 2013-14, and if the Habs lock up the Atlantic Division, they'll meet the New York Rangers in the first round, and will be looking for revenge. The Blueshirts eliminated Montreal in six games in 2014, before losing the Stanley Cup Final to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Canadiens went 3-0 against the Rangers this season.

Paul Byron scored another pair Thursday, pushing his career high to 22 goals, while Brendan Gallagher had a four-point game on a goal and three helpers. Carey Price was Carey Price - he stopped 29 of 31 shots.

With Ottawa set to drop their game Thursday, Montreal will jump six points clear of the Senators, though Guy Boucher's squad does hold a game in hand.

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It's been a long time since the Carolina Hurricanes lost in regulation.

Once 11 points back of the second wild-card seed in the East, the Canes have put together a 9-0-4 run since March 9, setting a new franchise point streak record, and storming into the playoff picture to the surprise of just about everybody.

Carolina's latest victory was a crucial overtime win Thursday over the Columbus Blue Jackets, maintaining the gap between them and the Boston Bruins - who beat Dallas 2-0 - at four points with a game in hand.

Over the Hurricanes' torrid 13-game stretch, they lead the NHL in points earned (22), goals for (46), and have operated the seventh most effective powerplay (25.8 percent).

Leading the charge in race up the standings is Jeff Skinner, who bagged two points in Thursday's win, giving him 15 in his last 13 contests. It hasn't just been Skinner, though, as Sebastian Aho (12), Elias Lindholm (12), Jordan Staal (10), and Justin Faulk (nine) have stepped up to show Carolina's core is in fact quite dangerous.

Carolina's next test comes Saturday versus a struggling Stars team, before embarking on a two-game road trip through Pittsburgh and Minnesota.

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Connor McDavid is doing Connor McDavid-like things Thursday in Edmonton.

The speed, the dekes, the finish, it's all really just unfair.

The goal was McDavid's 28th of the season, the first short-handed marker of his young career, and paired with an assist, he's now up to 91 points on the season.

McDavid's also the first player 20 or younger to hit 90 points in a season since Steven Stamkos did it in 2009-10, according to TSN's StatsCentre.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are reportedly "working towards" a long-term extension with rookie defender Nikita Zaitsev, according to TSN's Bob McKenzie.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman adds that the deal would average $4.5 million annually, and that the two parties are "closing in" on an agreement.

More to come.

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