Maple Leafs 6, Hurricanes 1

TORONTO (AP) -Mats Sundin just hopes it's not too late.

Chad Kilger scored twice and the Toronto Maple Leafs helped their playoff chances with a 6-1 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

The Leafs have won a season-high six straight at the Air Canada Centre after going 12-14-5 at home.

"You're not going to make the playoffs if you're below .500 at home," said Sundin, Toronto's captain. "Hopefully, it's not too late. Hopefully, we can keep going like this."

Boyd Devereaux, Pavel Kubina, Yanic Perreault and Alexei Ponikarovsky also scored for the Maple Leafs, who tied Stanley Cup Champion Carolina in points (84).

The Hurricanes fell behind Montreal for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens beat the New York Rangers 6-4 Tuesday night to get to 86 points, two ahead of the Hurricanes, Maple Leafs and Islanders.

"We're a tough team to play against and if we keep doing that the next six games we're going to give ourselves a good chance," Sundin said.

Kilger also said the difference is their play at home.

"We've been playing much better at home. We're healthy and we haven't been that in a couple of months," Kilger said.

Carolina goalie Cam Ward scored on himself. Last year's playoff MVP was replaced after allowing five goals on 19 shots. He knocked in Toronto's second goal with his own stick, and looked bad on Toronto's other goals.

Eric Staal scored for the Hurricanes, who have six games left.

"We just got beat in every way," Carolina defenseman Mike Commodore, who added they're not feeling the pressure of defending their championship.

"We're not thinking we got to make the playoffs because we're the defending champions. We want to make the playoffs because that's what we're supposed to do. We weren't expected to miss the playoffs."

Toronto's forwards looked much quicker than Carolina's.

Devereaux scored just 43 seconds into the game.

Staal tied it at 2:13 of the first, but Kubina's shot went off a Carolina defenseman before a diving Ward knocked the puck into his own net at 14:31 of the first.

Kilger's wrist shot easily beat Ward at 17:48 of the first, giving Toronto a 3-1 lead. Kilger knocked in a rebound at 7:17 of the second after Toronto skated in on a 2-on-1.

Perreault scored to make it 5-1 at 11:18 of the second. Some fans left early with the game in hand, a rare sight in Toronto.

Notes: Toronto is 3-1 against Carolina this season. ... The Leafs also have six games left. ... Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley didn't play in the third after injuring his leg. ... Perreault's goal was the 500th point of his career.