Lightning beat Ducks, clinch spot in playoffs

Anthony Cirelli scored 1:58 into overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 on Thursday night to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Ross Colton, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 10 saves before being replaced by Brian Elliott, who stopped all 13 shots he faced.

The Lightning qualified for the playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons. The two-time defending NHL champions are trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup three times in a row since the Islanders won four straight from 1980-83.

PENGUINS 6, ISLANDERS 3 >> Jake Guentzel scored twice, Sidney Crosby also had a goal and Pittsburgh earned a playoff berth for the 16th straight season with the victory over New York.

Guentzel scored his 36th and 37th goals and Crosby his 29th as the Penguins extended the longest active postseason streak among teams in major North American professional sports.

MAPLE LEAFS 7, CAPITALS 3 >>

William Nylander, Michael Bunting and Ilya Mikheyev each scored twice, Auston Matthews had two assists to reach 101 points and Toronto routed Washington.

John Tavares had four assists to help the Maple Leafs improve to 48-20-6, a victory shy of the club record set in 2017-18.

Matthews — with 58 goals and 43 assists — became the third player in Toronto history with 100 or more points. Darryl Sittler had 117 in 1977-78, and Doug Gilmour had 127 in 1992-93 and 111 in 1993-94. BLUES 6, SABRES 2 >> Vladimir Tarasenko scored three times as part of a careerbest five-point outing and St. Louis rolled to its seventh straight win.

Robert Thomas had five assists to extend his point streak to 11 games, during which he has six goals and 23 points.