Vanek finished with a goal and two assists, while Nathan Gerbe scored twice, including a highlight reel spin-around goal that tied it midway through the third period. Jason Pominville also scored for the Sabres, who had already secured a postseason spot by earning a point when the game entered overtime.

Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell had a goal and assist, and Kris Versteeg also scored for Philadelphia, winless in its past five games. The Flyers late-season skid has prevented them from clinching the Atlantic Division title, and they've now fallen into a tie with Pittsburgh. With 104 points, both teams have one game left, though the Flyers have the tiebreaker edge on their cross-state rivals.

The Flyers loss also allowed Washington to clinch the top spot in the East.

At Nashville, Patric Hornqvist scored two goals and had an assist, and Nashville clinched its sixth playoff berth in seven seasons with a victory over Columbus.

Matt Halischuk and Sergei Kostitsyn also scored for Nashville.

The Predators will wrap up the regular season Saturday night in St. Louis with a chance to earn the Western Conference's fourth seed and start the playoffs at home — where they went 24-8-9 this season.

Derick Brassard scored for Columbus. The Blue Jackets have lost five straight.

At Atlanta, Jeff Skinner and Tuomo Ruutu each had a goal and two assists as Carolina beat Atlanta to move closer to an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Carolina needs a home win Saturday over Tampa Bay or a regulation loss by the New York Rangers to make the playoffs for the first time since advancing to the Eastern Conference finals in 2009.

Erik Cole, Joni Pitkanen, Brandon Sutter and Jussi Jokinen also scored for Carolina. Cam Ward, who shut out Detroit 3-0 on Wednesday night, was just 39 seconds from earning his second straight shutout and the 17th of his career before Bryan Little's 18th goal made it 6-1.

At Uniondale, New York, Chris Kunitz scored the only goal in the shootout and Pittsburgh beat New York to avenge a record-setting, fight-filled loss.

The Penguins seemed to have things well in hand until Travis Hamonic's goal with just 35 seconds left leveled it at 3-3.

Mark Letestu, Mike Rupp and Zbynek Michalek scored for Pittsburgh in the highly anticipated rematch with the Islanders after the brawl-marred previous meeting on Feb.11, won 9-3 by New York.

Blake Comeau had two goals for the Islanders.

At Detroit, Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa each had a goal and an assist for Chicago.

Ben Smith and Brian Campbell also scored for Chicago, fighting for a playoff spot a year after winning the Stanley Cup. Patrick Kane had two assists, and Corey Crawford made 26 saves.

Drew Miller and Tomas Holmstrom scored for Detroit, third in the Western Conference.

At Tampa, Florida, Vincent Lecavalier's two goals, including one on a penalty shot, helped the Lightning edge the Panthers.

Lecavalier put the Lightning up 3-1 when he lifted home a wrist shot on his penalty shot at 1:27 of the second. The Tampa Bay captain also had a first-period power-play goal.

Ryan Malone and Pavel Kubina also scored for the Lightning.

Jason Garrison and Mike Santorelli scored Florida. The Panthers have lost 10 in a row.

At Denver, Mike Ribeiro had a goal and an assist, Brenden Morrow and Loui Eriksson also scored and Dallas stayed alive in the playoff race.

Kari Lehtonen had 15 saves for the Stars.

Brandon Yip had two goals, Jonas Holos two assists and Peter Budaj made 25 saves for the Avalanche, now assured of finishing with their lowest points total since moving to Colorado in 1995.

Before the game, Colorado defenseman Adam Foote announced that he will retire at the end of the season.

At Edmonton, Alberta, Jose Theodore made 28 saves and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Mikko Koivu assisted on all three Minnesota goals in the Wild's victory over Edmonton.

Brent Burns, Jared Spurgeon and Andrew Brunette scored for Minnesota.

Teemu Hartikainen scored for Edmonton.

At Anaheim, California, Teemu Selanne scored two goals and Anaheim clinched a playoff spot marking the first time that both Southern California teams will be in the playoffs in the same year.

Dan Ellis made 23 saves in place of the injured Ray Emery in his first start since March 20.

Ryan Smith scored his 22nd goal and Jonathan Quick made 26 saves for the Kings, who earned their second straight postseason berth Wednesday night with a 3-2 shootout, win over Phoenix.

At Glendale, Arizona, Shane Doan had a goal and an assist, Ilya Bryzgalov made some tough saves late and Phoenix clinched a playoff spot by holding off San Jose.

The Coyotes built a three-goal lead early in the third period, but San Jose came charging back on Joe Thornton's goal for his 1,000th career point and Danny Heatley's 26th goal of the season with 3:39 left.

Bryzgalov finished it off to become Phoenix's career wins leader, sending the Coyotes to the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999-2000. Ray Whitney, Andrew Ebbett and Radim Vrbata also scored for Phoenix.

Ian White had a first-period goal for San Jose.