Islanders 4, Capitals 3 (OT)
WASHINGTON -- Thomas Hickey scored with 2:47 left in overtime, Christopher Gibson made 29 saves in his first NHL start and the New York Islanders clinched a playoff berth with a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
New York (43-26-9) rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the third period to force overtime.
Hickey, who left the ice earlier in the overtime after taking a skate to the chin, scored off a feed from John Tavares on a rebound.
Gibson kept the Islanders' chances alive when he stopped Washington's Evegeny Kuznetsov on a breakaway 30 seconds into overtime.
Alex Ovechkin scored twice for Washington, which has lost three of its last four games. T.J. Oshie added a goal and two assists.
Braden Holtby made 23 saves for Washington (55-18-6). He has 47 wins and two games left to better the NHL record of 48 victories set by New Jersey's Martin Brodeur in 2006-07.
John Tavares scored his 31st goal of the season and added two assists for the Islanders. Kyle Okposo and Anders Lee also scored for New York, which secured at least a wild-card berth with the win.
With two goalies injured and Thomas Griess having played Monday night, the Islanders recalled Gibson from Bridgeport of the AHL to make the start.
Oshie and Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 3-1 lead when they scored in the opening seven minutes of the third period. Ovechkin's goal came at the conclusion of pretty passing sequence involving Oshie and Marcus Johansson (two assists).
The Islanders pulled within 3-2 when a puck deflected off the boards behind Holtby and out in front to Okposo, who banged it home at 8:40 of the period for his 22nd goal of the season.
Just 1:45 later, the score was tied after Lee deflected a Nick Leddy shot past Holtby.
The already banged-up Islanders were without D Brian Strait (upper body injury) for the final 20 minutes.
Ovechkin, who has 13 goals in his last 12 games against New York, opened the scoring at 4:29 of the first period. He controlled the puck off a faceoff in the Islanders' zone, skated along the boards into the left circle and fired a high wrist shot from a tough angle past Gibson.
Tavares hit the crossbar in the opening minute of the second period and found the back of the net before the next intermission. He one-timed a drop pass from Hickey past Holtby on the glove side at 13:33 of the period.
NOTES: Washington C Nicklas Backstrom (upper body injury) missed his third straight game. D Mike Weber, D Taylor Chorney and RW Stanislav Galiev were scratched. ... New Jersey's Martin Brodeur finished 48-23-7 with a 2.18 goals-against average and 12 shutouts when he set the wins record for a goaltender in 2006-07. ... Islanders G Christopher Gibson's only other NHL action came Jan. 2 when he played 29 minutes against the Penguins. ... The Islanders scratched G Jean-Francois Berube (lower body), C Mikhail Grabovski (upper body), G Jaroslav Halak (lower body), RW Cal Clutterbuck (undisclosed), D Calvin De Haan (undisclosed) and RW Travis Hamonic (knee). D Marek Zidlicky and C Shane Prince also were scratched.