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UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Michael Grabner scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period and Evgeni Nabokov made 26 saves as the New York Islanders took another step toward the playoffs with a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night. The Islanders won for the seventh time in nine games and moved two points ahead of the idle Rangers into seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia (17-19-3) is 12th in the East, five points behind the Rangers and the postseason cutoff. The Islanders, who won just two of their first 11 home games this season, have four consecutive wins at Nassau Coliseum. John Tavares and Casey Cizikas -- into an empty net -- scored 28 seconds apart in the final two minutes to put New York ahead 4-1. Jakub Voracek gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first period. PENGUINS 5, HURRICANES 3 RALEIGH, N.C. -- Beau Bennett and Evgeni Malkin scored 13 seconds apart in the third period, and Pittsburgh clinched the Atlantic Division title by beating free-falling Carolina. Brenden Morrow scored his first goal with the Penguins, Robert Bortuzzo added a goal, and Pascal Dupuis had an empty-netter and two assists. Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves for Penguins, who were without a handful of regulars -- including captain Sidney Crosby, James Neal and Kris Letang -- but still handed the Hurricanes their club-record eighth straight home loss. Joe Corvo and Bobby Sanguinetti scored early goals for the Hurricanes, and Riley Nash put them ahead 3-2 at 2:00 of the third. Justin Peters made 28 saves for Carolina, which lost its sixth straight and for the 13th time in 14 games. BLUE JACKETS 4, SHARKS 0 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sergei Bobrovsky earned his fourth NHL shutout -- all in his last 15 games -- and newcomer Marian Gaborik had a goal and an assist, leading Columbus over San Jose. Matt Calvert, James Wisniewski and Ryan Johansen also scored for the Blue Jackets, who had lost their previous two games. Bobrovsky, who didn't have a shutout in his first 98 NHL appearances, made 30 saves, including stopping Patrick Marleau's point-blank wrister in the third period and Dan Boyle's hard, power-play slap shot in the second. The Blue Jackets have gotten points in 17 of their last 21 games (12-4-5). They had a four-game home winning streak ended Sunday night by Minnesota, 3-0. That defeat also snapped a club-record 12-game points streak at home (9-0-3). CAPITALS 3, CANADIENS 2 MONTREAL -- Alex Ovechkin scored his 26th goal and Jack Hillen netted his first as Washington stretched its winning run to five games by beating Montreal. Eric Fehr also scored for the Southeast Division-leading Capitals, who are 6-0-1 in their last seven. They are 5-0 in April, during which Ovechkin has eight goals, and Nicklas Backstrom, who had two assists, has 11 points -- all assists. Lars Eller scored both goals for Montreal, which lost for the second time in seven games. It was Montreal's first loss to a Southeast team (11-1-0) in 2013. The Capitals improved to 6-0-1 in their last seven visits to Montreal. LIGHTNING 3, SENATORS 2 TAMPA, Fla. -- Steven Stamkos scored his 26th goal of the season in the third period, and Tampa Bay beat Ottawa. Stamkos snapped a 2-2 tie with a power-play goal off a pass through the slot by Vincent Lecavalier with 5:04 to play. Tampa Bay also got goals from Pierre-Cedric Labrie and Lecavalier. Martin St. Louis assisted on Lecavalier's goal for his 900th point. The right wing, the 98th NHL player to reach the milestone, also assisted on Stamkos' goal. Daniel Alfredsson and Guillaume Latendresse scored for the Senators, who have lost five in a row. Kyle Turris had two assists. Latendresse tied it at 2 from near the crease on a power play 21 seconds into the third. Alfredsson has 425 goals, tying him for 70th place on the NHL career list with Brian Propp. The right wing also tied Frank Mahovlich for 56th place with 1,103 points. JETS 4, SABRES 1 WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Aaron Gagnon scored his first NHL goal to help Winnipeg top Buffalo. Gagnon was playing in just his third game since he was called up from the AHL. Kyle Wellwood, Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler had Winnipeg's other goals. Kevin Porter had the only goal for the Sabres in the third period, spoiling what could have been Ondrej Pavelec's first shutout of the season. Pavelec finished with 29 saves. It was the second consecutive win for the Jets during a six-game homestand. Winnipeg trails Washington by two points in the Southeast Division. BLUES 1, PREDATORS 0 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Brian Elliott made 15 saves, and Alex Steen snapped a six-game goal drought to lead St. Louis over Nashville. The Blues extended their winning streak to a season-high five games. The fading Predators have dropped four straight and seven of eight. Elliott was relatively untested en route to his second consecutive shutout. He made four saves in the first, six in the second and five in the third. Elliott has 20 career shutouts. St. Louis strengthened its chances of making the playoffs in the West, while Nashville fell deeper into last place in the Central Division. After a scoreless first period, Steen got the game's first goal at 16:37 of the second. Pekka Rinne made 25 saves in the loss. BLACKHAWKS 1, WILD 0 ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Marian Hossa's unassisted goal late in the second period lifted NHL-leading Chicago to its fifth win in six games. Ray Emery started for the Blackhawks for the third straight game and made 20 saves for his second shutout in that stretch and third of the season. He helped hand Minnesota its fifth loss in seven games. Hossa darted in front of Clayton Stoner's seemingly harmless breakout pass toward Mikko Koivu in the Wild zone. Hossa intercepted the bouncing pass in front of the blue line, skated up the middle and snapped a shot past goalie Niklas Backstrom's stick with 4:46 left in the period. It was Hossa's first goal since March 16 at Dallas. He missed six games in that scoreless stretch because of an upper body injury, but Hossa is still second on the team with 14 goals. STARS 5, KINGS 1 DALLAS -- Ray Whitney and Vernon Fiddler both scored twice during Dallas' four-goal third period, and the Stars broke open a tie game and routed Los Angeles. Whitney snapped a 1-1 tie just 52 seconds into the third, and the Stars poured on the offense en route to their third straight win. The Stars moved into ninth place in the Western Conference, two points behind Detroit and the postseason cutoff. Alex Goligoski also scored, and Trevor Daley added two assists for the Stars, who entered the night with the worst home record in the West. They improved to 9-9-2 at home. Richard Bachman stopped all 22 shots he faced after replacing starter Kari Lehtonen 14:18 in. Lehtonen started his 19th straight game, but left because of a lower body injury after making seven saves and allowing one goal. Drew Doughty scored for the Kings, who are 5-2-2 in their last nine games. Jonathan Quick made 26 saves.
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