The San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets won on Tuesday night to close the gap on NHL Western Conference leaders the Calgary Flames.
Tomas Hertl's hat-trick led the Sharks to a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, while Joe Thornton marked his 1,000th game for the club with a goal and Marcus Sorensen also scored.
The Jets rode 43 saves by Laurent Brossoit, two goals from Kyle Connor and one each for Mathieu Perreault and Mark Schiefele to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 and sit a point behind San Jose and two behind Calgary, who face the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
The Tampa Bay Lightning remain 15 points clear in the Eastern Conference after a 2-0 win over the Dallas Stars with goals from Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev.
The Columbus Blue Jackets recorded their fourth win in a row, 4-1 over the New Jersey Devils, to move ahead of the Washington Capitals into second. Washington went down 7-2 to the Nashville Predators.
The Montreal Canadiens won 5-1 against the Florida Panthers, though they needed a career-high 52 saves from Antti Niemi.
There were wins for both New York teams as the Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 with two goals each from Tony DeAngelo, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich while the Islanders won 2-1 against the St Louis Blues.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 while the Minnesota Wild won 3-2 against the Los Angeles Kings.
