Best of NHL: Maple Leafs blank Lightning, gain in wild-card chase

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TAMPA, Fla. -- Morgan Rielly and Matt Martin scored 15 seconds apart during Toronto's four-goal second period, Frederik Andersen made 33 saves and the Maple Leafs moved into the lead for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-0 on Thursday night.

Roman Polak, Connor Brown and James van Riemsdyk also scored for Toronto, which was coming off a 7-2 loss Tuesday night at Florida. The Maple Leafs hold a one-point advantage over Tampa Bay and the New York Islanders.

Tampa Bay, 12-3-3 over its last 18 games, pulled Andrei Vasilevskiy six minutes into the second after he allowed four goals on 15 shots. The goalie had gone 6-0-1 over his previous seven games.

After Rielly scored 2:24 into the second, Martin made it 3-0 on the next shift. Brown, on the power play, and van Riemsdyk added goals later in the period (see full recap).

Little scores twice, Hellebuyck solid as Jets beat Isles
NEW YORK -- Bryan Little scored twice, Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves and the Winnipeg Jets beat the New York Islanders 4-2 on Thursday night to snap a four-game skid.

Mathieu Perreault and Adam Lowry also scored for the rested Jets, who had their game Tuesday in Newark, New Jersey, against the Devils postponed because of a snowstorm.

Little scored twice in the first period after Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech opened the scoring 38 seconds in. Perreault and Lowry each scored in the second.

The Jets came into the game 0-3-1 in their last four games and 2-8-2 against Metropolitan Division opponents this season. Winnipeg had also lost four straight to the Islanders.

But after Pelech scored his second goal of the season on a floating shot that eluded Hellebuyck, the Islanders couldn't capitalize on momentum generated by their 3-2 comeback win in overtime at Carolina on Tuesday a night after they lost 8-4 at home to the Hurricanes (see full recap).

Rask leads Hurricanes to win over Wild
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Victor Rask scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:24 to play and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Minnesota Wild 3-1 Thursday night.

Teuvo Teravainen added an empty-net goal with 1:24 remaining. Derek Ryan also scored for the Hurricanes and Eddie Lack stopped 21 shots. Carolina has points in five straight games (3-0-2).

Mikael Granlund scored for Minnesota and Devan Dubnyk finished with 31 saves. The Wild had won six straight overall against the Hurricanes, who improved to 6-1-2 against Minnesota at home.

The Wild finished a 1-4 road trip to give them five losses in their last six (see full recap).

Arvidsson scores as Predators buck OT trend to beat Capitals
WASHINGTON -- Viktor Arvidsson scored 1:05 into overtime and the Nashville Predators bucked their season-long trend of OT struggles by beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Thursday night.

Arvidsson's goal improved the Predators to 4-7 in the 3-on-3 period this season and 7-19 over the past two years. Pekka Rinne made 22 saves but didn't face a shot in overtime from the Capitals, who lost for just the eighth time in 36 home games.

James Neal also scored his 21st goal for Nashville, which extended its winning streak to three and its point streak to five.

Brett Connolly scored the Capitals' regulation goal, and Braden Holtby stopped 22 of the 24 shots he faced. Washington fell to 7-3 in overtime this season (see full recap).

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