Toronto (31-12-8, 70 points) and Carolina (32-9-8, 72 points) collected wins as Maple Leafs captain John Tavares (0-2-2) and Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns (0-1-1) reached the 1,000- and 1,300-game milestone, respectively:
* Tavares became the second player in franchise history to record multiple points while skating in his 1,000th career NHL game, joining Tim Horton (0-2-2 in Nov. 19, 1967). Toronto moved five points ahead of idle Tampa Bay (32-15-1, 65 points), which occupies third place in the Atlantic Division.
* Burns became the fifth player in franchise history to skate in his 1,300th career NHL game with the Hurricanes/Whalers, following Rod Brind'Amour (0-1-1 on Dec. 20, 2007), Glen Wesley (March 27, 2006), Paul Coffey (0-1-1 on Feb. 18, 1999) and Ron Francis (2-3-5 on Feb. 10, 1999). Carolina now trails League-leading Boston (38-7-5, 81 points) by a single-digit point total.