Florida Panthers clinch Atlantic Division title, home-ice advantage throughout East playoffs

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers are champions of the NHL's Atlantic Division. They look like a team that's ready to win even more.

Aleksander Barkov scored his 38th goal of the season and the Panthers tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win, beating the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 on Thursday night.

That, combined with Tampa Bay's 8-1 win over Toronto later Thursday, locked up the Atlantic title and home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs for the Panthers. It's the third time that Florida has won a division title in its 28-season history.

«It means a lot. We put a lot of hard work into the season, and locking up the division is a big accomplishment for us,» Florida's MacKenzie Weegar said. «But there's obviously the bigger picture here and we'll enjoy that, locking up the division and getting the home-ice advantage for the playoffs here. But other than that, we're trying to build our game and have fun while we're doing it.»

Mason Marchment had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart, Noel Acciari and Weegar also scored for the Eastern Conference-leading Panthers, who moved two points ahead of West-leading Colorado in the race for the best record in the NHL. Florida (118 points) and the Avalanche have five games remaining.

«We're taking care of business,» Acciari said.

The Panthers matched the 12-game winning streak they posted from Dec. 15, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016. Florida has outscored opponents 61-31 in that span, 27-9 in the past six games.

«We kind of just go game-by-game and I'm happy we're racking up the wins here,» Weegar said. «We're a great team and it's obviously shown all year.»

Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists and moved into a tie with Connor McDavid of idle Edmonton for the