Panthers secure road win over the Capitals

Veteran defenseman Marc Staal ended a 75-game goal drought, captain Aleksander Barkov also scored and the visiting Florida Panthers held on to beat the Washington Capitals 6-3 Thursday night in a big game in the Eastern Conference wildcard race.

Florida pulled even with Washington at 62 points, closing an 11-point gap between the teams since New Year's Day.

If recent trends continue, the Panthers will pass them quickly, having won five of seven to claw into the playoff chase. Despite cutting their deficit to one goal with under three minutes left in regulation, the Capitals fell to 0-3-0 on their three-game homestand.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored to cut Washington's deficit to 4-3 at 17:28 of the third, but Florida's Anton Lundell responded with the first of two empty-net goals for the Panthers.

BLUE JACKETS 3, JETS 1 >> Kent Johnson's third-period goal was the tiebreaker and Joonas Korpisalo had 36 saves for host Columbus. The Blue Jackets tied the game in the second period and moved ahead at 9:40 of the third with Johnson's shot after a power play ended. Patrik Laine also scored for Columbus, and Boone Jenner scored into an empty net with 3 seconds left in the game. Kyle Connor scored for the Jets.

HURRICANES 6, CANADIENS 2 >> Seth Jarvis had three goals for his first career hat trick and host Carolina scored three times in the first five minutes of the third period. Jarvis scored in the first and third periods for his first multi-goal game of the season, capping his night with a short-handed goal. Michael Pezzetta and Rafael HarveyPinard scored for Montreal.

BRUINS 5, PREDATORS 0 Visting Boston got secondperiod goals from Craig Smith, Patrice Bergeron and Derek Forbort.