Third-period goals, Oshie's hat trick power Capitals
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Washington Capitals became the first team to clinch a playoff spot this season.
Justin Williams and John Carlson scored third-period goals to break a tie and lift the Capitals to a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
T.J. Oshie registered a hat trick and added an assist and Nicklas Backstrom had four assists for Washington. Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots as the Capitals won for just the second time in the past seven games.
Nikita Kucherov had two goals and Alex Killorn scored for the first time in a month for Tampa Bay, which lost in regulation in consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 30 saves.
Washington looked to set the tone early and grabbed the lead on the first power-play chance of the game as Marcus Johansson fed Oshie in front to finish off a crisp passing play 3:44 in to the game. Oshie notched his second of the game, finishing off a two-on-one rush by converting a pass from Alex Ovechkin to give Washington a 2-0 lead at 11:52.
Tampa Bay answered back on its first power-play chance after Victor Hedman sent a puck in to traffic that eventually found Kucherov near the right circle, where he roofed a shot over Holtby at 15:52 for his 32nd goal of the season and 100th of his career.
Killorn tied the game 16 seconds later as he cut from the right circle into the slot area and was tripped up, but managed to fire off a shot as he was falling down to pull Tampa Bay even with his 17th goal of the season and his first since Feb. 4.
Both goaltenders were on their game in the second with Vasilevskiy stopping all 13 shots he faced while Holtby was sharp in making eight stops, including two in-close saves -- first on Killorn's redirect chance early in the period and stoning Gabriel Dumont on a rebound chance late.
Williams deflected a Matt Niskanen shot at 3:14 of the third period while Carlson batted a puck out of the air during a delayed penalty call to open a two-goal lead.
Kucherov scored his second of the game with 1:30 left before Oshie scored into an empty net with 44 seconds left to complete the hat trick.
NOTES: Lightning LW Ondrej Palat and D Jake Dotchin, both of whom missed practice on Friday, were in the lineup for Tampa Bay. ... Lightning RW Joel Vermin was called up from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Saturday morning and was scratched. ... Injured Tampa Bay C Vladislav Namestnikov (lower body) participated in an optional morning skate in a no-contact jersey but missed his third consecutive game. ... Washington LW Marcus Johansson left the game midway through the first period because of illness and did not return. ... The Capitals scratched D Nate Schmidt and D Taylor Chorney.