SAN JOSE Youth Jordan Weal Jersey , Calif. (AP) San Jose coach Peter DeBoer talks about Logan Couture as playing at another level at this time of the year. Couture proved his coach right once again.Couture scored his NHL-leading 16th go-ahead goal six minutes into the third period and the Sharks improved their chances for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.”It was a big power play,” Couture said. ”I think we moved the puck around OK on the first one we had. The second one, just a great play by (Kevin) Labanc to find me. (Goalie Jonathan) Bernier was out of the net. Actually, the puck hopped on my stick. I wasn’t trying to shoot it along the ice. I got a little lucky.”Justin Braun, Tomas Hertl and Joonas Donskoi also scored for the Sharks, who snapped a four-game losing streak and kept their one-point lead over the Anaheim Ducks for second-place in the Pacific Division.”That’s not an easy game for us under the circumstances and some of the guys out,” DeBoer said. ”I thought we dug deep and found a way to win an important game at an important time of year.”Mikko Rantanen and Blake Comeau scored for the Avalanche, who missed an opportunity to increase their lead over the St. Louis Blues for a playoff spot.Martin Jones stopped 23 shots for the Sharks. Bernier saved 32 for the Avalanche.Less than three minutes into the first period, Braun scored on a slap shot from just inside the blue line that deflected off the arm or stick of a Colorado defender, giving Bernier no chance to adjust.”That was huge. We needed that just to kind of put those other teams in the rear view a little bit,” Braun said. ”If we hold onto second here on Saturday and go from there, get home ice in the first round. It would be huge.”The Avalanche tied the score with a power-play goal at 15:17. Jones blocked the first two shots but could not control them. The second bounced free toward the side, and Rantanen was able to get it by a diving Jones.Tyson Barrie earned an assist on the play, giving him a career-best 43. His 56 points match Rob Blake for most by an Avalanche defenseman in the past 16 years.Colorado has scored on the power play in each of its last four games and is 6 of 11 during that span. It also has allowed a power-play goal in each of the past five games.Couture scored on a power play 77 seconds after the Avalanche tied the game. Labanc recorded the first assist with a nice crossing pass.The Blues will enter Saturday’s game in Denver either up a point or down a point, meaning the final game of the regular season will determine which team goes to the playoffs and which team goes home.”We’ll have to take advantage of home ice. This is Game 7 for us,” said Mark Barberio, who returned to action after a long absence. ”These are the moments we play for: a chance to make the playoffs.”Donskoi scored midway through the final period to make it 3-1. Dylan DeMelo took a shot that Bernier stopped, but Donsoi took it away and put it in the net before Bernier could cover.Two minutes later, Comeau redirected a shot by David Warsofsky to make it 3-2.Hertl scored an empty-net goal in the final two seconds.”It comes down to one game. It’s going to be a fun one,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. ”We’ll have to earn every inch of the ice.”NOTES: Colorado C Carl Soderberg played in his 399th NHL game. … Couture has points in three of his last four games. … Sharks F Evander Kane missed his second straight game as a result of an upper-body injury sustained last Saturday in Las Vegas.UP NEXT:Avalanche: Host St. Louis on Saturday in the regular-season finale.Sharks: Host Minnesota on Saturday in the regular-season finale.— PHILADELPHIA (AP) Claude Giroux and Andrew MacDonald scored in the second period and the Philadelphia Flyers overcame Patrik Laine’s 40th goal of the season in a 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday that snapped a five-game losing streak.Laine moved into a tie with Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the most goals in the league when he scored on a one-timer on the power play at 8:58 of the third period. The 19-year-old Finn has 15 goals and six assists during an 11-game point streak.Petr Mrazek stopped 27 shots for the Flyers, bouncing back from a stretch of 18 goals allowed in four games.Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for the Jets, who saw their four-game winning streak end.BRUINS 7, BLACKHAWKS 4BOSTON (AP) – Brian Gionta and Rick Nash each scored a power-play goal and Boston completed a 6-0-0 homestand.Gionta and Nash got their goals during a double-minor penalty on Chicago’s Patrick Kane.Jake DeBrusk set up two power-play goals by David Krejci. David Pastrnak scored, Noel Acciari had a short-handed tally and Sean Kuraly added an empty-netter for Boston. Tuukka Rask made 23 saves on his 31st birthday.Erik Gustafsson had a goal and two assists, and Jonathan Toews, John Hayden and Matthew Highmore scored for Chicago, which lost for the fifth time in seven games. Highmore’s was his first in the NHL.The Bruins had four power-play goals.LIGHTNING 3, CANADIENS 2, SOTAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Nikita Kucherov scored the deciding goal in the fourth round of the shootout Scott Laughton Jersey , lifting Tampa Bay past Montreal.Tyler Johnson scored his 20th of the season. Kucherov tied it late in the third with his 34th . Louis Domingue made 27 saves and stopped three of four attempts in the shootout.Brayden Point also scored in the shootout for Tampa Bay, his 10th conversion in 15 career shootout attempts.Artturi Lehkonen and Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal. Charles Hudon set a career high with two assists. Antti Niemi finished with 32 saves, including all three in overtime.GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2, SABRES 1, SOBUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – Erik Haula scored the decisive shootout goal and Vegas set an NHL record for road victories by an expansion team.Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland forced overtime by scoring the tying goal from a bad angle with 4:14 left in regulation. Marc-Andre Fleury won his 399th career game by stopping 31 shots through overtime.After both teams traded shootout goals, Haula scored in the fifth round by driving up the right side and beating goalie Robin Lehner on the short side.Justin Bailey scored for Buffalo. Lehner finished with 31 saves in the loss.The Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights improved their road record to 20-12-3, to beat the league record of 19 set by Anaheim in 1993-94, its inaugural season. The Golden Knights, 44-19-5, have already set NHL expansion-team records for most overall wins, home wins, points and longest winning streak – an 8-0 run from Dec. 14 to Jan. 2.AVALANCHE 5, COYOTES 2DENVER (AP) – Blake Comeau and Carl Soderberg each had a goal and an assist in a first-period burst, and Colorado goalie Jonathan Bernier won his ninth straight home game but left in the third period for an undisclosed reason.Tyson Barrie also scored early as Colorado had three goals in the opening 4:22 to take a 3-1 advantage. The Avalanche rode the torrid start to another win at the Pepsi Center, where they’ve gone 14-1-1 since Dec. 29.Tyson Jost and Mikko Rantanen scored in the third to seal the win and help Colorado snap a streak of three straight overtime losses. The team remains in the thick of the playoff chase a season after finishing last in the league.Christian Dvorak and Richard Panik added goals for Arizona, a surging team that’s gone 9-3-2 in over its last 14 games.CAPITALS 2, SHARKS 0SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves for his fifth career shutout and Nicklas Backstrom scored late in the second period to help Washington salvage the final game of its California swing.Washington was outscored 7-1 in losses to Anaheim and Los Angeles to open the trip before a narrow win in San Jose moved the Capitals one point ahead of Pittsburgh for first place in the Metropolitan Division, pending the Penguins‘ game in Toronto.Alex Ovechkin, two goals short of 600 for Washington, was held scoreless for the third straight game. Marc-Edouard Vlasic thwarted one chance for Ovechkin to get goal No. 599 with a strong back check and goalie Martin Jones robbed Ovechkin on a partial breakaway midway through the third period to keep San Jose’s deficit at 1-0.Lars Eller’s empty-net goal sealed the win for the Capitals.BLUES 7, KINGS 2LOS ANGELES (AP) – The struggling St. Louis Blues got goals from seven players and handed Los Angeles its worst defeat of the season.Robert Bortuzzo, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Ivan Barbashev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Brodziak and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues, who had lost nine of 10. Jake Allen made 40 saves.The loss left Los Angeles one point back of Colorado for the second Western Conference wild card, and two points ahead of St. Louis. The Kings had not lost by more than four goals all season.Drew Doughty and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves before he was pulled after the second period. Jack Campbell stopped 14 of 17 shots in the third.The Blues Womens Sean Couturier Jersey , shut out in their previous game against San Jose, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period.PANTHERS 4, RANGERS 3, SOSUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – Vincent Trocheck scored the deciding goal in the shootout to lift Florida to its franchise-record eighth straight home win.Aleksander Barkov also scored in the tiebreaker for the Panthers, who have points in nine straight games. The Panthers pulled two points behind Columbus for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, with three games in hand.Frank Vatrano scored a goal in his Panthers debut, Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and an assist, and Jamie McGinn also scored. Trocheck had two assists. Roberto Luongo made 34 saves.Kevin Hayes, Mika Zibanejad and Mats Zuccarello scored in regulation for the Rangers, who lost their third straight. Ryan Spooner had a pair of assists. Zuccarello also scored to open the shootout. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 32 shots in his 800th career game, becoming the 15th goalie in NHL history to reach the milestone.MAPLE LEAFS 5, PENGUINS 2TORONTO (AP) – Nazem Kadri scored twice and Toronto snapped a four-game losing streak with its franchise-record 10th straight home win.Kasperi Kapanen, Mitch Marner and Patrick Marleau also scored for the Maple Leafs. Frederik Andersen, appearing in his 57th game this season, stopped 38 shots.Sidney Crosby and Patrick Hornqvist scored for the Penguins, who had won three straight and nine of their last 12.Andersen had a shutout going until Crosby got his 23rd of the season with 3:36 remaining to make it 4-1. It was Crosby’s 26th career goal and 57th point against the Maple Leafs. Hornqvist then tipped Evgeni Malkin’s shot from the point with 2:28 to go. Malking got his 40th assist and 59th point against Toronto.Marleau added an empty-netter with 58 seconds left to close the scoring.DEVILS 3, PREDATORS 2, SONASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Brian Boyle scored in the fifth round of the shootout to lift New Jersey.Boyle beat Nashville goalie Juuse Saros with a quick wrist shot from the slot on the blocker side.New Jersey’s Taylor Hall and Nashville’s Kyle Turris each scored in the fourth round of the tiebreaker after none of the first six shooters could solve the opposing goalie.Sami Vatanen and Boyle had the goals in regulation for New Jersey, winners of two of three. The Devils moved past idle Columbus into the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Keith Kinkaid made 34 saves through overtime and denied four of Nashville’s five attempts in the shootout.Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Johansen had the goals for Nashville, which snapped its franchise-high 10-game winning streak. Saros finished with 25 saves.OILERS 4, WILD 1EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) – Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist to lead Edmonton.Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who have won three straight. Cam Talbot stopped 32 shots.Charlie Coyle scored and Devan Dubnyk had 24 saves for the Wild, who snapped a three-game winning streak.McDavid scored twice less than three minutes apart midway through the second period to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins scored about a minute apart late in the third to seal the win.