Flyers 6, Capitals 3

Wayne Simmonds and the Flyers are playing every game as if it's the postseason. It paid off this weekend.

Simmonds scored two goals to lift the Flyers past Washington on Sunday night, capping a four-point weekend and helping Philadelphia solidify its playoff position.

"We desperately needed the two points and we played like we needed it," Simmonds said.

Oskar Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov and Jakub Voracek also had goals for Philadelphia (37-25-11, 85 points), which stayed in third place in the Metropolitan Division and moved within four points of the first-place Capitals (41-24-7, 89 points). The Flyers began play tied with Columbus, which was idle Sunday, but have a tiebreaker over the Blue Jackets.

Philadelphia scored all four of its goals in the third period of Saturday's 4-2 comeback win at Carolina.

"It was critical," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said of the weekend wins. "These are basically all playoff games right now. Real gutsy effort."

Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 43rd goal of the season, and Chandler Stephenson and John Carlson had goals for the Capitals, whose four-game winning streak was snapped.

Washington rested Saturday and coach Barry Trotz expected his players to come out aggressively against the Flyers, who were playing their second game in less than 24 hours. He was disappointed that didn't happen.

"You know they're going to be in desperate mode," Trotz said. "You know they're going to give a good effort, but at the same time, we had all the advantage. We were in our beds last night watching the (Carolina) game.

"We talked about taking control of the game early, make it real hard. I don't think we did that. We didn't make it hard enough on them. We just played. We were chasing the game the whole night."

The Flyers took the lead for good on Lindblom's first career goal with 1:41 left in the second period. Voracek passed to the rookie in the slot, and Lindblom's wrist shot went off goalie Philipp Grubauer's blocker, off the pipe and then into the goal. The rookie went 12 straight games without a point before picking up an assist in Saturday's 4-2 win over Carolina.

Philadelphia extended its lead to 3-1 with 18.3 seconds left in the period when Provorov's wrist shot from the side boards got through traffic, deflected off defenseman Christian Djoos' leg and past Grubauer.

Simmonds' deflection of Robert Hagg's slap shot made it 4-1 1:37 into the third period.

After Stephenson finished a 2-on-1 to pull the Capitals within 4-2 with 9:29 left, Simmonds scored his second of the night on a wrist shot from the slot that zoomed past Grubauer's glove into the top-right corner.

Carlson's backhander from a sharp angle with 3:53 left made it 5-3, and Voracek finished the scoring with an empty-netter with 37.1 seconds to play.

Hakstol felt Saturday's win helped relax the Flyers, who had lost seven of eight entering Saturday.

"Took a little weight off," he said. "Tonight, the focus was good and clear."

Gostisbehere opened the scoring 2:15 into the second period on a one-timer after Claude Giroux's clean win on the faceoff.

Washington tied it at 1 with 4:52 left in the second on Ovechkin's goal. Travis Boyd set up the goal with a pretty pass from the slot, spinning to backhand to Ovechkin, who tipped it over Mrazek.

Mrazek, playing in his 11th game for Philadelphia after being acquired from Detroit, had a strong game until giving up Carlson's tally. He stopped Nicklas Backstrom on a 2-on-1 in the first period and later made a good glove same on Dmitry Orlov's slap shot to keep the Capitals scoreless in the first. Mrazek's most important save may have been with 8:10 left after Washington pulled within two goals when he used his pad to deny Lars Eller from close range. He finished with 25 saves.

Grubauer returned to the net for Washington after struggling Braden Holtby made 22 saves in Friday's 6-3 win over the Islanders. Holtby, the 2016 Vezina Trophy winner, had lost seven of eight and hadn't played in four consecutive games entering Friday.

Grubauer made 29 saves.

Hurricanes 4, Islanders 3

Trevor van Riemsdyk scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period and Scott Darling made 26 saves as Carolina beat New York.

Van Riemsdyk's second goal of the season came on a long slap shot with 6:49 remaining to help snap Carolina's three-game losing streak and continue the late season swoon by the Islanders, who have just one win their last 12 games.

Jaccob Slavin, Lee Stempniak and Victor Rask also scored for the Hurricanes. Anders Lee scored twice and Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist for New York. John Tavares had three assists and Jaroslav Halak finished with 35 saves.

Ducks 4, Devils 2

Brandon Montour scored a power-play goal, helping lift Anaheim into third place in the Pacific Division with a win over New Jersey.

Ryan Getzlaf and Rickard Rakell each had a goal and an assist, and Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the Ducks, who lead Los Angeles by two points in the division. Anaheim won its third straight game and is 6-1-0 in its last seven at home.

John Gibson made 15 saves, improving to 9-2-0 in his last 11 starts.

Kyle Palmieri had a power-play goal and Patrick Maroon also scored for the Devils, who had won the first three games of their six-game road trip. Keith Kinkaid made 32 saves, ending a four-start winning streak.

New Jersey holds the second wild-card in the Eastern Conference, five points ahead of Florida.

Lightning 3, Oilers 1

Nikita Kucherov scored twice to lift the Tampa Bay to a victory over Edmonton.

Louis Domingue stopped 28 shots to help the Lightning end a two-game slide and move back to four points ahead of Boston for the top overall spot in the Eastern Conference standings. Victor Hedman also scored and Steven Stamkos added two assists.

Tampa Bay killed off five Edmonton power-play chances and kept Connor McDavid off the scoresheet, leaving him four points behind Kucherov for the league lead in points.

Ty Rattie scored for Edmonton and Al Montoya finished with 37 saves.

Jets 4, Stars 2

Patrik Laine scored twice to extend his point streak to 15 games and tie Alex Ovechkin for the NHL goal lead, and Winnipeg beat Dallas to match the franchise wins record at 43.

The second-year sniper has 43 goals, matching the total from Ovechkin, the Washington star and Laine's boyhood favorite. Laine's point streak is the longest active run in the NHL and adds to his league record for the longest point streak by a teenager. The streak includes 18 goals and eight assists.

Ben Chiarot also scored and Blake Wheeler added an empty-netter for Winnipeg. Mattias Janmark and Jamie Benn each scored for Dallas.

Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the Jets in the second game of a six-game homestand. The last time they reached 43 wins was 2014-15, when they made the playoffs for the first time since relocating to Winnipeg from Atlanta.

Golden Knights 4, Flames 0

William Karlsson scored a natural hat trick to lead Vegas over Calgary.

Colin Miller also scored as Vegas snapped a four-game home losing streak and improved to 25-9-2 at T Mobile Arena.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who made his 20th start in 21 games, made 42 saves. In getting his 48th career shutout and fourth of the season, Fleury moved into a tie with Chris Osgood for 12th all-time amongst goaltenders at 401.

Vegas improved to 3-0-0 against Calgary while outscoring the Flames 15-5. The teams meet once more, in the regular-season finale at Calgary on April 7.

Mike Smith stopped 27 shots as the Flames, one of the league's better road teams this season, dropped to 20-11-6 away from home.

Blues 5, Blackhawks 4 (OT)

Patrik Berglund scored 3:31 into overtime, and St. Louis came from behind for a big victory over lowly Chicago.

Defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Vince Dunn each had a goal and three assists for the Blues, who are trying to rally for a playoff wild card in the Western Conference. Alexander Steen had a goal and an assist, and Vladimir Sobotka also scored.

St. Louis was trailing 4-3 with 1:22 left in regulation when Pietrangelo drove a long slap shot past a screened Jean-Francois Berube for his 15th of the season. Berglund then got the winner when his shot trickled under Berube in OT.

Alex DeBrincat scored three times for last-place Chicago, which has dropped five of six, including its first loss to Buffalo since December 2009 on Saturday. David Kampf also scored, and Berube made 36 saves.

Avalanche 5, Red Wings 1

Nathan MacKinnon kept up his torrid scoring with two goals and an assist, Semyon Varlamov was sharp in making 37 saves and Colorado extended Detroit's skid to 10 games.

Gabriel Landeskog, Blake Comeau and Tyson Barrie also scored to help the Avalanche remain in playoff position with 10 games remaining. The Avs have 86 points after accumulating a league-low 48 last season.

Justin Abdelkader had a goal for the Red Wings, who fell to 0-9-1 during a winless streak in which they've been outscored by a 41-19 margin. It's the team's longest winless streak since a 12-game run in 1989.