The Tampa Bay Lightning established a new franchise record for wins in a season when they recorded their 51st victory Thursday against the New York Islanders, according to NHL Public Relations.

The win surpassed the team's previous record of 50, set in 2014-15.

Though the Islanders are well out of the playoff picture, the victory was no smooth sailing.

The Bolts held leads of 4-1 and 7-3 in the contest, but after a late surge from the Islanders, they were forced to hang on to a 7-6 win.

In the process, Jon Cooper surpassed John Tortorella for the most head coaching wins in team history, per Bryan Burns of the team's website.

The Lightning now sit at 106 points - six ahead of the Boston Bruins for first place in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference.

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Eddie Olczyk received some very encouraging news regarding his cancer battle.

The NBC broadcaster and former NHL player and coach told play-by-play voice Pat Foley and the NBCSN audience on Thursday night that his scans came back clean last week.

"Well, I'm proud to say that I did have my final scan after the chemo(therapy) treatment, Pat, and I'm proud to stand here before everybody and you, my partner and my friend, (and say) that all the cancer is gone and we beat this thing," Olczyk said.

He then added some specifics.

The 51-year-old was diagnosed with colon cancer last August. He returned to the booth in October and has been working games as his health has permitted.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets blanked the Florida Panthers 4-0 to push their winning streak to 10 games on Thursday night.

With the win, the Blue Jackets have now tied the Colorado Avalanche and the Nashville Predators for the longest winning streak in the league this season.

It is the second-longest winning streak in Blue Jackets history, after the team won 16 straight last season.

The Blue Jackets now sit tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins with 89 points - but sit third in the Metropolitan Division due to games played - and have an eight-point cushion on a playoff spot.

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The logjam out West is apparently unprecedented.

Entering Thursday's games, seven teams were either four points above or four points below the playoff line in the Western Conference for the first time this late in the season since the advent of the conference format in 1993-94, the Anaheim Ducks revealed to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

That doesn't include seasons shortened by a lockout.

The Los Angeles Kings came into Thursday's action occupying the second Western Conference wild-card spot with 87 points.

Four teams - the San Jose Sharks (91), the Minnesota Wild (90), the Ducks (88), and the Colorado Avalanche (88), were ahead of them by four points or less, while the St. Louis Blues (85) and the Dallas Stars (84) also sat within four points of the Kings and the eighth postseason position in the West.

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That's one way to put the puck in the net.

The Arizona Coyotes scored an odd goal on Thursday night after an Alex Goligoski dump-in got caught up in Cam Ward's skate and the Carolina Hurricanes netminder then backed into his own net.

It wasn't clear at first, but upon review it was determined that when Ward moved back to his net, his skate - that had the puck lodged in it - had crossed the line.

The goal is awfully familiar to one allowed by Mike Smith in 2013 when he backed into his own net after the puck had fallen into his hockey pants.

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One of the Calgary Flames' most promising prospects is staying in college.

Adam Fox will return to Harvard for his junior season in 2018-19, he told Postmedia's Wes Gilbertson on Thursday.

“The Flames have been really good with my development and with helping me get better along the way," he told Gilbertson. "But for right now, just staying and focusing on school and hockey, that’s my focus.”

The 20-year-old defenseman poured in 28 points in 29 games with the Crimson this season, and he piled up 40 points in 35 contests in 2016-17.

Fox was a member of the United States squad that won bronze at the World Junior Hockey Championship in January, and he was also part of the 2017 team that won gold at the tournament.

He was a third-round pick by the Flames in 2016.

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Detroit Red Wings defenseman Mike Green will undergo season-ending surgery on his cervical spine, the team announced.

Green, a pending unrestricted free agent, was a prime candidate to get moved at the trade deadline by the rebuilding Red Wings, but the team was unable to find a partner as concerns over his injury grew.

He missed seven games beginning in late February due to an upper-body injury but returned on March 2. Since then, he had played in all of the Red Wings' games leading up to Thursday's announcement.

The 32-year-old finished the season with 33 points in 66 games.

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The longest game in KHL history is finally in the books.

After seven full periods of hockey, Jokerit forward Mika Niemi finally put an end to an epic playoff game versus CSKA Moscow by scoring just over two minutes into the fifth overtime frame. With the goal, Jokerit skated away with a 2-1 win in a game that clocked in at 142:09 - 15:54 longer than the league's previous longest contest.

The record-long game saw Jokerit netminder Karri Ramo make 83 saves on 84 shots, while CSKA's Ilya Sorokin turned away 46 of the 48 shots thrown his way.

CSKA's Mat Robinson skated a game-high 54:12, while Sam Lepisto paced all Jokerit skaters with 52:19 logged.

The result was unfortunate for Nashville Predators fans who await the arrival of young phenom Eeli Tolvanen who is currently awaiting Jokerit's exit from the KHL playoffs before he joins the Predators for their playoff run.

With the win, Jokerit now trails CSKA Moscow 3-2 in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 to be played on Saturday.

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Edmonton Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom underwent successful shoulder surgery on Thursday and will miss the remainder of the regular season, the team announced.

The 24-year-old will require five-to-six weeks of recovery after which he will be cleared for workouts.

Back on March 14 the team announced that Klefbom was returning to the lineup after a two-game absence, while knowing that he would be having season-ending surgery soon after.

Klefbom had a career high in goals (12) and points (38) in 2016-17, but has put up just five goals and 21 points through 66 games this season.

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The Florida Panthers continue to lend support to nearby Parkland, sending the hockey team from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to the national tournament on a special charter flight.

The NHL team teamed up with Swift Air to send the Eagles to Minnesota in fine fashion, and Shawn Thornton, former NHL forward and Panthers vice president of business operations, was there to send them off Wednesday.

"They're getting the full experience that our team would get when flying on a road trip," Thornton said, according to Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post.

The Eagles recently won the state championship, less than two weeks after a former student opened fire on teachers and students at the school and killed 17 people.

The 17 players who appeared in the state final brought their medals home and placed them on the memorials set up for those lost in the tragedy.

The Panthers also recently invited the team to practice at the NHL rink, bringing out the Stanley Cup as an added bonus.

"You can't ask for anything more than a team of guys that just understand what you're going through and they're going through the same thing with you," said player Matthew Hauptman. "And everyone's come together and making us even stronger as a team."

The Eagles begin their national title quest Thursday.

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