Owen Tippett scored three goals to lift the host Philadelphia Flyers to a dominant 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.

Joel Farabee and James van Riemsdyk each added one goal for the Flyers (25-32-11, 61 points), who snapped a four-game losing streak.

Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo each had two assists for the Flyers. Goaltender Carter Hart made 36 saves.

Victor Olofsson scored two goals for the Sabres (33-29-6, 72 points), who lost their second straight. Sabres goaltender Craig Anderson stopped 17 shots.

The Sabres entered the night six points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild-card spot. Buffalo is attempting to snap an 11-year streak of missing the playoffs.

Buffalo came out aggressive in the third period and closed within 4-1 when Olofsson scored on the power play at 2:27.

The Flyers responded to go back ahead by four goals when Tippett notched his first career hat trick at 5:33 for a 5-1 lead. Tippett scored on the backhand and the hats came pouring down on the ice from the stands.

Olofsson’s second power-play goal came with just 0.4 seconds remaining with the game already decided.

Tippett skated in all alone and fired a backhand shot at 12:36 of the first period, which was stopped by Anderson. Just 23 seconds later, Buffalo’s Jordan Greenway had a terrific scoring chance, but his backhand shot was stopped by Hart.

The Flyers went ahead 1-0 at 15:10 when Tippett ripped a wrist shot on the power play into the upper corner of the net.

Philadelphia took a 2-0 advantage at 3:53 of the second period when Farabee connected.

Tippett’s second goal, coming at 13:14 for his 20th of the season, gave the Flyers a 3-0 advantage.

Philadelphia kept the pressure on and took a 4-0 lead at 18:21 following van Riemsdyk’s tap-in.

The Sabres appeared to express their frustration as several players became entangled with the Flyers by the boards with 50.5 seconds remaining. Riley Stillman and Zemgus Girgensons were noticeably upset.

–Field Level Media

The NHL might as well start engraving the Art Ross Trophy, because nobody is catching Edmonton’s Connor McDavid for the scoring title.

Already with 131 points, the Oilers star has a whopping 30 more than anyone else in the league, and his 57 goals are 11 more than any other player.

His point total is already the most in the NHL in more than a quarter century (since Mario Lemieux totaled 161 in 1996), and McDavid will try to add to his total Saturday afternoon in Seattle when the Oilers (38-28-8, 84 points) face the host Kraken (38-23-7, 83 points).

McDavid scored his NHL-leading 57th goal and added an assist Thursday in the Oilers’ 4-1 victory over visiting Dallas.

“We’re getting to the point in the season where it’s almost like coaches step back and the players (take over),” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “You give them a plan and hold people accountable but we’re getting to the players’ time of year here.”

Mattias Janmark scored twice and Evan Bouchard had a pair of assists Thursday for Edmonton, which has won two straight and four of its past five games. Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced.

“We are always hungry to continue to get better,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “We can definitely take some good pieces from that game and build on them. That is a good sign for us here. We have a lot of important hockey coming up.”

The Oilers are in third place, a point ahead of Seattle in the Pacific Division, though the Kraken have a game in hand.

Seattle snapped a three-game winless streak (0-2-1) with a 2-1 overtime victory Thursday in San Jose.

Vince Dunn scored the winner to extend his points streak to a franchise-record 11 games (four goals, 12 assists). Dunn is the third defenseman to have an 11-game run this season, joining San Jose’s Erik Karlsson and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey.

Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal and an assist for the Kraken and goalie Philipp Grubauer made 31 saves.

“There was a will to him,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said of Dunn. “You can see his confidence offensively with the puck. At times he controlled some of the play, and maybe fitting that he was the guy to make the play on the winning goal.”

This will be the fourth and final regular-season meeting between the teams. The Oilers have a 2-1-0 edge in the season series, including a 7-2 victory Dec. 30 at Seattle. McDavid has seven points (three goals, four assists) in the three games.

“Coming up is a pretty big test,” Grubauer said. “We are playing teams that are even with us in the standings.”

Seattle’s Matty Beniers is tied for the NHL’s rookie goal-scoring lead with 19 this season. Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston pulled even with Beniers with the Stars’ lone goal in Thursday’s loss in Edmonton.

The Oilers hope to get forward Zach Hyman back after he sat out the previous two games with an undisclosed injury. Hyman had a goal and two assists against the Kraken in a 5-2 home victory on Jan. 17.

Seattle posted a 5-2 victory at Edmonton on Jan. 3, rallying from a two-goal deficit. Jaden Schwartz had a goal and two assists.
–Field Level Media

A few games of chaotic roster situations created some inconsistent performances and dropped the New York Rangers in the standings.

Lately it appears the Rangers are regaining their footing.

New York aims for a third straight win Saturday night when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second time in three days.

New York (39-19-10, 88 points) is 4-0-1 over its past five games following a 2-5-1 skid that ran from Feb. 18 to March 4. The two-week slide occurred as the Rangers played with a short roster for salary cap reasons to eventually acquire Patrick Kane from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1.

The Rangers are 4-2-1 in seven games since Kane joined the team March 2, the latest instance being Thursday’s 4-2 victory. New York never trailed and never played short-handed as Mika Zibanejad and Tyler Motte scored before Chris Kreider netted the tiebreaking goal and an empty-net tally in the third period.

“We’re playing the right way now and then that skill comes out,” New York defenseman Adam Fox said. “You need a little time to click with new guys and I think we’ve done a good job of that the last few games.”

It was the second straight game the Rangers never trailed after allowing opponents to score first in 10 of their previous 13 games.

New York’s ability to start clicking again sends them into Saturday with a 10-point lead on the Penguins (34-24-10, 78 points). The Rangers are seven points behind the New Jersey Devils in a bid to finish second place in the Metropolitan Division and earn home-ice in the opening round.

“The division is tight,” Kreider said. “Playoff race is tight. It’s a big win, big division win, a four-point game.”

Pittsburgh shares the same point total as the New York Islanders, who are playing in San Jose later Saturday. The Penguins have one fewer win but have two games in hand with the Islanders, against whom they are 0-3-1.

Besides trying to stay ahead of the Islanders, the Penguins are attempting to fend off the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals in the wild-card race. Florida is three points back with 14 games left and scored nine goals Thursday.

Pittsburgh won four straight Feb. 25 to March 2 but is a middling 3-3-1 over its past seven games and has allowed 10 goals in the past two games following last weekend’s two wins over the Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.

After allowing four goals in the opening period of a 6-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the Penguins got better goaltending from Tristan Jarry but struggled in containing New York’s frequent odd-man rushes.

“I thought as a team we had our moments,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I didn’t think we brought a level of urgency that we needed to early in the game. I thought we gave up a few too many odd-man rushes, which just boils down to details. And so I just think we need to bring more urgency.”

The moments Sullivan referenced included tying goals by Richard Rakell and Jake Guentzel. Both goals were set up by Sidney Crosby, who has two goals and eight assists in a modest six-game points streak.

“We feel like the last five, six games have been like this, but we’ve just got to find a way because it’s the time of year,” Rakell said. “You’ve got to find a way to win these games.”

–Field Level Media

The Montreal Canadiens will be looking for a few things to show up in their play when they travel up Florida’s Gulf Coast to play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night — a short memory and the ability to bounce back.

Stung by a 9-5 throttling by the Florida Panthers in a very forgettable Thursday night in south Florida, Montreal (27-36-6, 60 points) surrendered seven goals in the match’s opening 13:18 and saw goaltenders Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen tag in and out as the home side scored on nine of 42 shots.

Starting in goal and returning to finish the blowout, Montembeault made 21 saves on 24 shots. In his stint of 21:29, Allen let in six goals on 18 shots.

The Panthers became the first club to score seven times in the first period since the Hartford Whalers beat Montreal 11-6 on Oct. 19, 1985.

“We gave up way too many chances the whole game,” said Montreal captain Nick Suzuki. “Against a team like that, with the offensive players they have, they’re going to score.

“It felt like we were playing shinny hockey in the summer and they were playing to make a playoff spot. So it’s pretty unacceptable from us.”

The Habs got a goal and an assist each from Mike Matheson and Anthony Richard. Michael Pezzetta, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Rem Pitlick found the net, but the Canadiens lost for the eighth time in nine games (1-6-2) — in epic fashion, no less.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” said Pitlick, who tallied on the power play. “I thought we made some push-back, too. (Coach) Marty (St. Louis) kind of left us as a group in between periods, and some things were said. I did think that we made some pushes.”

The Lightning (41-22-6, 88 points) had to push to the end, hung on in overtime and saw Alex Killorn ring home the game-deciding goal in the shootout’s bottom of the third round of a 4-3 win at the New Jersey Devils.

In a critical third period with the game knotted at 2-2, Tampa Bay killed off a full two-minute, five-on-three Devils power play. Steven Stamkos then exited the penalty box and scored the go-ahead goal with less than five minutes to play.

New Jersey’s Timo Meier did tie it over two minutes later with his second tally of the match, but the enormous effort on the penalty kill and the 29th marker by Stamkos — who had two goals and an assist — put the visitors in position to win.

“I think the turning point was the penalty kill for us, the five-on-three,” said defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who dealt out two assists. “(Defensively), we were on the inside. We didn’t let them do much. They were shooting from the outside.”

In two victories this season, the defending Eastern Conference champions have a 9-2 scoring advantage over the Habs.

–Field Level Media

Now to see what the Florida Panthers do for an encore.

After setting a franchise record with seven goals in the first period Thursday en route to a 9-5 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, the Panthers hope to sustain at least some of that roll Saturday when they host the New Jersey Devils in Sunrise, Fla.

Florida likely will not need a nine-goal outburst to beat the Devils, but dearly could use another victory in its push for a playoff spot, which has been gathering steam the last couple of weeks.

The Panthers (34-27-7, 75 points) are on a 4-0-1 run that has them within three points of a playoff spot with 14 games remaining. Florida has two games in hand on the New York Islanders, who hold the second wild-card position.

“We just want to keep it going,” forward Carter Verhaeghe said. “We didn’t like our game in the third (period) that much. It was a little tough to play there. We liked our game in the first period and we want to keep on going.”

The Panthers can certainly build off that offensive outburst, with a few players on hot streaks. None are hotter than left winger Matthew Tkachuk, who has amassed three or more points in each of the past three games and center Aleksander Barkov, who has recorded eight points (1-7-8) in a five-game spree.

Tkachuk notched four points while Barkov netted two in the wild affair against the Canadiens.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in 25 years, that many goals” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “There were more goals than chances to score, and that’s a rarity. All I can say is that it completely affected the rest of the game for both teams.”

The Devils (44-17-7, 95 points) are right behind the Carolina Hurricanes for top spot in the Metropolitan Division, but need to regroup from a pair of losses in consecutive home games to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

New Jersey dropped a 4-3 shootout game to the Lightning on Thursday, two nights after losing 4-1.

“We got a point but it still feels like we got out short a little bit,” said captain Nico Hischier, who collected a pair of assists Thursday.

The Devils on three occasions erased a one-goal deficit but could not summon a go-ahead goal, and have lost consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 23-28.

Not all the news is bad for the Devils, though. Forward Timo Meier scored twice, including the game-tying tally late in the third period to force overtime. Meier, who was acquired from the San Jose Sharks before the trade deadline, scored in his Devils’ debut, but had been blanked in the five games that followed.

His first Thursday came on a rebound from a sharp angle after he passed to Hischier on the rush. Meier’s second was a rocket of a short-side one-timer from the right circle. It was his team’s first power-play goal in four games.

“Timo’s just trying to fit in and sometimes it takes 10 or 15 games to figure out what fits,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We know he’s a great shooter, so you got to get the puck on his stick. We got to get him in position to shoot.”

–Field Level Media