Joe Sakic's scoring streak lifted the Colorado Avalanche straight to first place in the Northwest Division.
Sakic scored three goals, including the 400th of his NHL career, to lead Colorado over the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2 Thursday night."It was a huge win for us, and it puts us two points ahead of Edmonton, and we're all excited about the race," Sakic said. "It's going to be fun down the stretch."
Colorado has 82 points with seven regular-season games remaining. Edmonton, which did not play, has 80 points with eight games left.
On Feb. 29, the Oilers beat the Avalanche 3-1 and held a six-point division lead. But that game was a catalyst for Colorado's resurgence and Sakic's scoring spurt. Sakic has an 11-game scoring streak -- a season-high run that includes 15 goals, seven assists and two hat tricks. During his streak, the Avalanche are 7-3-1.
Peter Forsberg had a goal and Adam Deadmarsh had two assists as Colorado sent the slumping Coyotes to their fifth consecutive loss and eighth in 10 games.
Sakic had two power-play goals early in the first period, and the first extended his season-high scoring streak. It came 2:36 into the game and 37 seconds into a four-minute power play.
Forty-six seconds later, Sakic scored his 25th of the season, and 400th since he began his NHL career in 1988.
"It's a great milestone, but I'm not really looking at milestones right now," Sakic, 30, said. "I like to think I still have a few good years left. Any time you think you've got one or two more years left, you start thinking about milestones and shoot for some goals, but right now, it's too early."
Sakic completed his ninth career hat trick -- and second this month -- with 9:48 left. The goal gave him a franchise-record 1,049 points, one more than Peter Stastny.
PANTHERS 3, BRUINS 1: Mark Parrish and Cam Stewart scored 2:51 apart in the third period as Florida overcame a sluggish start and won at Boston.
SABRES 4, FLAMES 2: Jay McKee and Miroslav Satan scored in the final 2:08 to lift Buffalo into eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
SENATORS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Radek Bonk scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period to lead Ottawa over Toronto.
KINGS 3, FLYERS 2 (OT): Jozef Stumpel scored the tying goal late in the third period and had the game-winner in overtime as Los Angeles won at Philadelphia.
CAPITALS 4, RANGERS 1: Jeff Halpern scored two goals, and Olaf Kolzig made 27 saves to lead Washington's victory at New York.
RED WINGS 6, PREDATORS 3: Sergei Fedorov had a goal and two assists, and Detroit scored four times in the second period to win at Nashville.