Lightning 3, Predators 0

Tampa Bay started slowly, but Andrei Vasilevskiy was there to pick up his teammates.

Vasilevskiy made 36 saves to lead the Lightning to a victory over Nashville on Saturday night.

Ross Colton, Erik Cernak and Yanni Gourde scored for Tampa Bay, which has won two straight and four of its last six.

The shutout was the fourth of the season for Vasilevskiy and the 25th of his NHL career.

“(Vasilevskiy) was big for us in the first when we needed him,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “But then the guys, they stuck to the plan and it worked.”

Pekka Rinne made 31 saves as Nashville snapped its three-game winning streak.

“I thought we had a pretty good 60-minute effort tonight,” Nashville coach John Hynes said. “We played lots to our identity and how we want to be able to play to have success. The unfortunate part is we didn’t get any reward for it.”

Tampa Bay has won six of the seven head-to-head matchups with the Predators this season, including all three played in Nashville so far. The teams complete their season series here Tuesday night.

Vasilevskiy had to be sharp early, as Nashville peppered him with 18 shots in the first period. He denied back-to-back shots from Rocco Grimaldi from close range with just over 6:00 remaining in the period. He also made three saves on a late Nashville power play to keep the game 1-0 going into the first intermission.

“In the second and third, we were trying to play a little bit faster with the puck,” Cernak said. “I think we did a really good job after the first.”

Colton scored the game’s first goal at 6:45 of the opening period. Gourde took a long head-man pass from Mikhail Sergachev at the blue line and skated to the right circle. There he spun and sent a pass to Colton in the slot, where he made a quick move before slipping the puck between Rinne’s pads with a backhand.

“I couldn’t really find the lane, so I spun, and I was fortunate enough to hit right on his tape,” Gourde said. “What a finish by the guy. He’s been so good for us. He’s giving us a boost every single night and we follow his lead basically. It’s fun to watch.”

Cernak made it 2-0 at 14:04 of the second. From the high slot, Cernak’s wrist shot first deflected off the stick of Nashville’s Mikael Granlund then the leg of Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis before going past a helpless Rinne on the stick side.

Gourde added an empty-net goal in the game’s final minute.

Colton’s first period goal extended his scoring streak to three games. Saturday was the Tampa Bay rookie’s 15th career NHL game, and the goal was his seventh. This is his first three-game scoring streak. Colton has scored in five of his last six games.

With Predators goaltender Juuse Saros playing so well, Rinne has not seen much action lately. Rinne made just his third start since March 21. Prior to Saturday, Rinne had won his previous three starts.

The injury-plagued Predators saw one player return to the lineup Saturday. Ellis, who missed the last 20 games with an upper-body injury, played for the first time since Feb. 28.

Ellis appeared to tie the game at a goal apiece early in the second, but Tampa Bay challenged the goal, and a video review determined the play to be offside.

“I felt better than expected,” Ellis said. “The team as a whole, it’s like night and day. I feel when I got hurt, every night was a battle and we were working, but nothing was happening for us. Tonight, it felt like years’ past where we were just buzzing in the o-zone making good plays, getting chances.”

Maple Leafs 6, Senators 5

Auston Matthews scored three times to increase his NHL-leading goals total to 31, and Jack Campbell made 27 saves to set an NHL record for consecutive victories to start a season, leading Toronto past Ottawa.

Mitch Marner added a goal and three assists for Toronto. The North-leading Maple Leafs have won six straight to improve to 28-10-3. They are 5-2-1 against Ottawa this season

Matthews had the third hat trick of his career, and also had an assist for a four-point night. He has five straight 30-goal seasons to start his career. Campbell broke the mark of 10 wins to start a season set by Montreal’s Carey Price in 2016-17.

lya Mikheyev and Zach Hyman each had a goal and an assist.

Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and Connor Brown each had a goal and an assist, and Alex Formenton and Josh Norris also scored for Ottawa.

Jets 5, Canadiens 0

Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for his second shutout of the season and Andrew Copp, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mathieu Perrault each had a goal and an assist in Winnipeg's victory over Montreal.

Paul Stastny and Derek Forbort also scored for the Jets. They have won three straight to improve to 25-13-3.

The Canadiens have lost three in a row. With Carey Price out until next week because of a lower-body injury, Jake Allen made 20 saves to drop to 1-5-4 in his last 10 starts.

Blackhawks 4, Blue Jackets 3

Alex DeBrincat had a goal and an assist, Kevin Lankinen stopped 23 shots and Chicago rallied to beat Columbus.

Carl Soderberg, Wyatt Kalynuk and Dylan Strome also scored for the Blackhawks, They who had dropped five of the last seven while battling Nashville and Dallas for the fourth playoff spot in the Central Division.

Michael Del Zotto, Cam Atkinson and Patrik Laine scored for Columbus.

Stars 4, Panthers 1

Rookie Jason Robertson scored twice for his first multigoal NHL game in Dallas' victory over Florida.

Jamie Benn had his third power-play goal in the last six games, Joel L’Esperance also scored, and Anton Khudobin made 20 saves.

Aleksander Barkov scored a power-play goal for Florida.

Red Wings 5, Hurricanes 4 (SO)

Adam Erne scored in the seventh round of the shootout to lift Detroit past Carolina. Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Valtteri Filppula and Erne had goals in regulation for Detroit. Larkin also scored in the shootout. Thomas Greiss finished with 30 saves.

Martin Necas, Jordan Staal, Dougie Hamilton and Sebastian Aho scored for the Hurricanes. Andrei Svechnikov extended the shootout in the third round for Carolina.

Blues 3, Wild 2 (OT)

Ryan O'Reilly scored with two seconds left in overtime to lift St. Louis past Minnesota.

Mike Hoffman scored twice for the Blues, tying it with 41.6 seconds left in regulation after the Blues pulled goalie Ville Husso.

O'Reilly skated around the net and stuffed a shot past Cam Talbot.

Nico Sturm and Matt Dumba scored for Minnesota.

The Blues have won three in a row — beating Minnesota 9-1 on Friday night — to move a point ahead of fourth-place Arizona for the last playoff spot in the West Division. The teams will meet for the third time in four nights on Monday in Minnesota.

Husso stopped 28 shots, and Tabot made 27 saves.

Flames 5, Oilers 0

Jacob Markstrom stopped 17 shots for his third shutout of the season and eighth of his career, helping Calgary end a four-game skid.

Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano each had a goal and an assist, and Sean Monahan, Elias Lindholm and Brett Ritchie also scored for the Flames. Sam Bennett and Mikael Backlund each had two assists.

Mike Smith had 27 saves for the Oilers, who lost in regulation for the second time in 11 games. Edmonton was shut out for the third time this season and fell to third place in the North Division — seven points behind first-place Toronto and one behind Winnipeg.

Kings 4, Sharks 2

Andreas Athanasiou, Alex Iafallo and Dustin Brown scored in the second period to lift Los Angeles past San Jose.

Jeff Carter also scored and Jonathan Quick made 26 saves as the Kings beat the Sharks for just the second time in eight meetings this season.

Dylan Gambrell and Timo Meier scored for the Sharks, who trail St. Louis by four points for the fourth and final playoff spot from the West Division.