Nino Niederreiter scored two goals, Curtis McElhinney stopped the final 40 shots he faced, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 on Friday night.
Lucas Wallmark also scored and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes, who have won 15 of 21 since Dec. 31 for the best record in the NHL in that span. Carolina moved a point behind idle
Pittsburgh for the final wild-card playoff spot in the East.
Leon Draisaitl scored his team-leading 34th goal on the Oilers' first shot, and Mikko Koskinen stopped 24 shots while losing his sixth straight decision. Edmonton is 1-7-2 in its last 10.
McElhinney improved to 7-0-0 against Edmonton -- his best career record against any opponent. With the Hurricanes largely unable to dictate play -- Edmonton was outshooting them 29-14 after two periods -- he single-handedly kept them in this one, with his best saves coming on a point-blank attempt by Colby Cave with about 13 1/2 minutes left and a stop on Connor McDavid with about 5 minutes remaining to keep it a one-goal game.
Niederreiter then gave Carolina a two-goal lead with 3:37 left by taking a feed from Aho and slipping a knuckler past Koskinen.
That effort came at a key time for the Hurricanes because this one marked the start of what could be a pivotal stretch. They played themselves back into the playoff conversation while polishing off the club's best five-game road trip since 1998, and of their next seven opponents, six began Friday night's games behind them in the standings.