The Toronto Maple Leafs broke a 1-1 tie with a four-goal second period on the way to a crushing 8-2 win over the Boston Bruins.

"We didn't get off to the best start, but then we turned the corner and never looked back," Toronto defenseman Bryan McCabe said.

McCabe had a goal and three assists and Nik Antropov scored twice to drive the Maple Leafs to their seventh win in 10 games and keep them in contention for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Alexei Ponikarovsky, McCabe, Matt Stajan and Antropov all scored for Toronto in a one-sided second period.

The Maple Leafs added three more scores in the third to complete the rout. Mats Sundin had one of the goals in his 1,300th career game.

"It was just one of those games where the puck follows you around and everything goes your way," Sundin said.

Peter Schaefer and Phil Kessel were on target for Boston.

The Montreal Canadiens used three third-period goals to beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2.

Erik Cole's second-period powerplay goal lifted the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-2 home win over the Minnesota Wild, a sixth win in seven games for the Southeast Division leaders.

The Florida Panthers whipped the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 behind Craig Anderson's 25 saves. Anderson, bidding for a third successive shutout, lost the opportunity when Ryan Malone scored 6:19 into the first period after Florida had taken a 2-0 lead.

Sean Avery scored twice and the New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders 4-1 to split this week's series.

Jeff Carter's two goals, including a third-period tiebreaker, led the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 triumph over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Flyers snapped an eight-game home losing streak to the Lightning. They had not beaten Tampa Bay in Philadelphia for five years.

The Colorado Avalanche won their fifth consecutive, shutting out the Anaheim Ducks 1-0 behind Wojtek Wolski's second-period goal.

Reuters