Lightning 5, Capitals 1

Pat Maroon scored twice in the third period, Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the slumping Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night.

Stamkos assisted on Alex Killorn’s goal midway through the opening period, then scored his 32nd of the season with 2.8 seconds left to put Tampa Bay up by two.

Maroon, who entered the game with three goals this season, scored early in the third period to give Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead, then put the game away with his second with 3:32 to go. Erik Cernak added a short-handed, empty-net goal with 1:54 remaining.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for the Lightning, who’ve won back-to-back games after losing four in a row.

“If we defend and play the right way, we win,” Maroon said. “You’ve seen it the past few years. We’re playing smarter with the puck too. We know better and we know what it takes. We’re too good of a hockey team and we have too many veterans in here to struggle like we have.”

Craig Smith scored and Darcy Kuemper, playing for the second straight night, made 29 saves for the Capitals. They are 1-4-2 in their past seven games and fell seven points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

“No one here is giving up,” Smith said. “There’s no quit here.”

Tampa Bay opened the scoring 9:20 into the first period when Killorn tipped Mikhail Sergachev’s power-play wrist shot from the left point past Kuemper. Stamkos put the Lightning up 2-0 by beating Kuemper with a one-timer after a faceoff win by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

The Capitals picked up their play in the second period and got on the board with 3:50 left when Smith picked up a missed shot off the end boards and backhanded it off Vasilevskiy’s left skate and over the goal line.

“Our first period was tough. That wasn’t the way we wanted to start,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had a much better second period and gave ourselves a chance going into the third, but the start was no good. We weren’t quick enough.”

Maroon tapped in the rebound of Anthony Cirelli’s shot 4:30 into the third period to restore the Lightning’s two-goal lead, then banged home another rebound off Cirelli’s shot.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper was delighted to see his fourth line produce a couple of gritty goals.

“Anytime you’re getting those goals two feet from the net, you’re doing something right and putting yourself in the right area,” he said. “It’s good for Patty to get a couple there.”

With the playoffs approaching, Cirelli said focusing on hard work and defense is key.

“Obviously, we want to be a hard team to play against. We want to limit chances and opportunities, especially 5-on-5 chances,” he said. “We’ve been great over the past few games, and we have to keep building on that. We have to continue to eliminate chances and play great team defense. We have to bring it up to another level.”

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie left the game after the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.

Red Wings 3, Hurricanes 2

Defenseman Jake Walman scored with 3.2 seconds left to lift Detroit past Carolina.

Dominik Kubalik and captain Dylan Larkin also scored for the Red Wings and Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves to beat his former team.

Carolina defense partners Brent Burns and Jaccob Slavin scored 3:36 apart in the second.

Panthers 5, Canadiens 2

Matthew Tkachuk had his fifth career hat trick and an assist in Florida’s victory over Montreal.

With his second goal, Tkachuk became the fourth player in NHL history to have 100 or more points in consecutive seasons after changing teams in the offseason. He joined Wayne Gretzky (1987-88, 1988-89), Jimmy Carson (1987-88, 1988-89) and Mike Rogers (1980-81, 1981-82) in achieving the feat.

Anton Lundell added two goals and one assist and Alex Lyon made 18 saves while helping the Panthers to its second win in a row and a season series sweep of Montreal

Sean Farrell scored his first career goal and Rafael Harvey-Pinard had a goal for the Canadiens.

Penguins 2, Predators 0

Tristan Jarry turned away 27 shots to outduel Juuse Saros and Pittsburgh beat Nashville.

Jason Zucker scored his 26th goal in the second period to give Jarry all the help he would need in his 13th career shutout. Jake Guentzel added a power-play goal in the third period.

Pittsburgh held on to the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with the victory. The Penguins are one point ahead of Florida, which won in Montreal on Thursday.

Oilers 2, Kings 0

Connor McDavid scored his NHL-leading 61st goal of the season and Edmonton beat Los Angeles for its third straight victory.

McDavid beat goalie Joonas Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the slot on a short-handed breakaway to make it 2-0 at 3:53 of the third period.

Stuart Skinner made 44 saves for his first shutout of the season and second in the NHL, helping the Oilers move past the Kings into third place in the Western Conference.

Evander Kane opened the scoring with 52 seconds left in the first period with his 15th of the season.

The Kings have lost two in a row.

Senators 5, Flyers 4 (OT)

Alex DeBrincat scored at 1:36 of overtime off goalie Felix Sandstrom’s giveaway in Ottawa’s victory over Philadelphia.

After the Flyers scored three straight goals to force overtime, Sandstrom misplayed the puck behind the net, with DeBrincat scoring into an open net to keep the Senators’ playoff hopes alive.

Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, Austin Watson, Shane Pinto and Claude Giroux also scored and Cam Talbot stopped seven of 11 shots.

Tony DeAngelo, Cam York and Noah Cates, Owen Tippett scored for the Flyers. Sandstrom made 41 saves. Tippett tied it with 2:39 left.

Blues 5, Blackhawks 3

Logan Brown and Alexey Toropchenko scored 38 seconds apart in the second period and St. Louis handed Chicago its seventh straight loss.

Jakub Vrana, Jordan Kyrou and Brandon Saad also scored for St. Louis. The Blues, still clinging to playoff hopes, have won two straight and three of four.

Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson and Boris Katchouk scored for Chicago. The Blackhawks dropped into a tie with Columbus for last overall in the NHL.

Kraken 4, Ducks 1

Jaden Schwartz and Matty Beniers scored within three minutes of each other in the first period and Seattle hung on to beat Anaheim.

Daniel Sprong added a power-play goal with 4:18 left and Alex Wennberg sealed it with an empty-netter. Martin Jones made 18 saves to help the Kraken keep their grip on the top Western Conference wild-card playoff spot. Brock McGinn scored for Anaheim.

Sharks 4, Golden Knights 3 (OT)

Logan Couture scored at 50 seconds of overtime to push San Jose past Vegas.

Mario Ferraro had a goal and assist, Oskar Lindblom and Tomas Hertl also scored and former Harvard defenseman Henry Thrun had two assists in his NHL debut. James Reimer made 23 saves.

Thrun is the second Sharks defenseman to have a multi-point game in his NHL debut, joining Scott Hannan, who also had two assists in his first game in October 1998.

Nicolas Hague, Ivan Barbashev and Michael Amadio scored for the Golden Knights. Laurent Brossoit made 20 saves. Vegas wrapped up a playoff spot earlier when Pittsburgh beat Nashville.