Author: APSun, 2017-03-19ID: 1489918106134398000TAMPA, Florida: T.J Oshie had three goals and an assist while Justin Williams and John Carlson had early third-period goals as the Washington Capitals clinched a playoff spot by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Saturday night.Oshie scored twice, including an early power-play goal, as the Capitals took a 2-0 lead midway through the first. He completed the hat trick with an empty-netter during the final minute. Oshie has 10 goals and 19 points in 14 games against Tampa Bay.Williams had a redirection goal 3:14 into the period before Carlson swatted a thigh-high puck home to make it 4-2 at 5:30.Washington also got four assists from Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots.Nikita Kucherov had two goals and Alex Killorn had the other goal for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves.RANGERS 3, WILD 2: Oscar Lindberg had a goal and an assist while Antti Raanta made 25 saves as the New York Rangers held on to beat the Minnesota Wild.Brady Skjei and Jimmy Vesey also scored for the Rangers, who have a league-high 26 victories away from home this season.Eric Staal and Matt Dumba scored for the Wild while Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves.BLUE JACKETS 3, ISLANDERS 2: Cam Atkinson scored 1 minute, 19 seconds into overtime to lift the Columbus Blue Jackets over the New York Islanders.Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson scored in the second period for Columbus, which improved to 46-18-6.Travis Hamonic and John Tavares scored for New York, which dropped to 33-26-12.BLACKHAWKS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1: Ryan Hartman scored with 17 seconds left in overtime to lead the Chicago Blackhawks past the Toronto Maple Leafs.John Hayden notched his first NHL goal and Corey Crawford stopped 25 of 26 shots for Chicago, which holds the top spot in the Western Conference with 97 points following their fourth straight win.Auston Matthews had a goal to snap a seven-game drought while Frederik Andersen made 37 saves for the Maple Leafs, who hold the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 79 points.RED WINGS 5, AVALANCHE 1: Tomas Tatar scored twice, including the go-ahead goal early in the third period that sent the Detroit Red Wings over the Colorado Avalanche.Tatar gave Detroit a 2-1 lead at 5:20 of the final period. Less than two minutes later, he took a pass from Gus Nyquist and scored his 20th goal of the season.The Red Wings pulled away on a power play when Dylan Larkin got his 15th goal and Nyquist added his 10th with less than four minutes left.CANADIENS 4, SENATORS 3: Paul Byron and Alexander Radulov scored in the shootout to lead the Montreal Canadiens past the Ottawa Senators in the first half of the teams’ home-and-home series. The teams meet again Sunday at Montreal.Andrew Shaw, Philip Danault and Brendan Gallagher scored in regulation for Montreal and Carey Price finished with 28 saves. Montreal extended its lead in the Atlantic Division to two points over second-place Ottawa.Derick Brassard, Ryan Dzingel and Erik Karlsson scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson, who had missed the past two games with a lower-body injury, stopped 29 shots.HURRICANES 4, PREDATORS 2: Jeff Skinner scored in each of the first two periods as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Nashville Predators.Jordan Staal added a goal and an assist while Jaccob Slavin had two assists for Carolina, while Elias Lindholm scored a short-handed empty-netter with 25.6 seconds to go.Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg scored for Nashville and Juuse Saros had 33 saves.BLUES 3, COYOTES 0: Jake Allen stopped 31 shots for his fourth shutout of the season to lead the playoff-contending St. Louis Blues past the Arizona Coyotes.Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and David Perron scored to help the Blues win for the seventh time in eight games.Allen earned his 15th career shutout. He stopped Teemu Pulkkinnen’s breakaway shot at 12:23 of the second period to keep the Coyotes scoreless.Mike Smith stopped 37 shots for the Coyotes.OILERS 2, CANUCKS 0: Cam Talbot made 33 saves for his sixth shutout of the season as the Edmonton Oilers topped the Vancouver Canucks.Connor McDavid and Mark Letestu scored for the Oilers, who have won three straight games. McDavid leads the NHL with 80 points, one ahead of Boston’s Brad Marchand.The Canucks have lost six straight.DUCKS 2, SHARKS 1: Patrick Eaves and Jakob Silfverberg scored goals as the Anaheim Ducks kept pressure on San Jose in the Pacific Division race with a win over the Sharks.The Ducks bounced back from a shootout loss the previous night at home against Buffalo to win the final regular-season matchup between the California rivals and move within four points in the division race. San Jose has one game in hand.Jonathan Bernier made 33 saves.Logan Couture scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who have lost consecutive home games in regulation for the first time since early November. Martin Jones made 25 saves.
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