Toronto, which entered on a 3-7-1 slide, moved within three points of the eighth and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Sharks 6, Avalanche 5
In San Jose, California, Alyn McCauley's wrist shot snapped a tie with 4:13 left and lifted San Jose past Colorado.
McCauley put the Sharks back on top after John Michael Liles got Colorado even at 5 just 5:18 earlier.
Patrick Marleau scored two power-play goals for the Sharks and recorded his 400th NHL point on the first. A rusty Evgeni Nabokov gave up all five Colorado goals and made 24 saves. He had missed five games with an abdomen strain.
The Avalanche trailed 4-1 in the second period but made a game of it behind two goals by Ian Laperriere and another from Milan Hejduk.
Joe Sakic earned his 901st assist on Laperriere's second goal to tie Bryan Trottier for 15th on the NHL career list. Sakic, who 1,467 points, is tied with Stan Mikita for 11th on that list.
San Jose's Jonathan Cheechoo added his 42nd goal of the season, off an assist from Joe Thornton, who is second in the NHL with 99 points.
Red Wings 7, Canucks 3
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Jason Williams scored twice and Pavel Datsyuk added a goal and two assists to help Detroit stay on top in the NHL standings.
Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Brendan Shanahan and Johan Franzen also scored.
Anson Carter, Markus Naslund and Matt Cooke scored for Vancouver, which has lost six of its last seven to drop into a tie with Anaheim for eighth place.
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