Whitney leads Carolina

Former Spokane Chief Ray Whitney had a goal and two assists and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Thursday night at Raleigh, N.C., to vault back into first place in the Southeast Division.

Lightning 5, Flyers 3: At Philadelphia, Martin St. Louis had a goal and two assists to lead Tampa Bay. … Islanders 5, Maple Leafs 4: At Toronto, Ruslan Fedotenko scored two of New York’s four power-play goals. … Blackhawks 6, Predators 1: At Nashville, Tenn., Jonathan Toews scored a pair of goals and assisted on another for Chicago. … Blues 4, Avalanche 1: At Denver, Ryan Johnson scored St. Louis’ second short-handed goal of the season, lifting the Blues. … Coyotes 5, Stars 2: At Glendale, Ariz., Radim Vrbata scored a short-handed goal and added two assists to help Phoenix past Dallas. … Wild 5, Canucks 4 (SO): At Vancouver, British Columbia, Mikko Koivu scored the winning goal in a shootout for Minnesota. … Oilers 3, Sharks 2: At San Jose, Calif., Alex Hemsky, Kyle Brodziak and Fernando Pisani each scored a goal for Edmonton.

Off the ice

Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik, whose carotid artery was nearly severed, may be discharged from a Buffalo hospital by Saturday. … Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers agreed on a six-year, $41.25 million contract extension. … Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind’Amour likely will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee.