TAMPA, Fla. - Alex Killorn and Jonathan Drouin scored power-play goals 1:51 apart late in the second period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 on Thursday night.

J.T. Brown, Andrej Sustr and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves.

Tampa Bay, which played without 38-goal scorer Nikita Kucherov due to illness, swept the five-game season series with the Red Wings.

Detroit got goals from Frans Nielsen, Danny DeKeyser and Mike Green. Petr Mrazek stopped 26 shots.

After Sustr put Tampa Bay up 2-1 early in the second, DeKeyser was involved in the final three goals of the period.

DeKeyser tied it at 2 on his first goal in 25 games, a shot that went off Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin.

Mrazek stopped Killorn's power-play shot, but DeKeyser put the puck into his own net while attempting to clear it at 16:13.

With DeKeyser off for cross-checking, Drouin made it 4-2 on a shot from the right circle with 1:56 left.

Gourde scored early in the third period, and Green followed with a power-play goal minutes later.

Nielsen and Brown, who stopped a 45-game goal drought, had first-period goals.

Henrik Zetterberg assisted on DeKeyser's goal for his 900th NHL point, coming in his 995th game.

NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos, out since having right knee surgery in November, has been upgraded to day to day. ... The Red Wings announced that C Luke Glendening will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle/foot. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson (lower-body injury, 10 games) has resumed skating with the team in practice. ... Red Wings RW Anthony Mantha left with an upper-body injury after fighting Tampa Bay D Luke Witkowski in the first.

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China wants to get its hockey program up to par before hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The NHL is using that as a starting point for a long-term vision to turn the country into a hockey nation.

The league is making the country of almost 1.4 billion people a top priority internationally. The Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks will play exhibition games in Shanghai and Beijing in September, and the games and the Olympics are only the beginning of what the NHL hopes is a bigger investment.

''The way we're looking at it is it's really not about 2022. It's about 2032 and '42 and so on and really building the game,'' NHL executive vice president of media and international strategy David Proper said by phone from Beijing. ''It's doing a disservice ultimately to the building of hockey in China to just target a five-year range and not be looking past that.''

At a news conference announcing the exhibition games, commissioner Gary Bettman called them ''the beginning of what we believe will be a very long-term relationship.''

The upcoming Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next year has created conflict for the league, which has expressed reluctance to stop its season to play 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in a place that isn't necessarily a hockey market. The NHL may yet decide to go to Korea because of players' interest but also in part because of the lure of Beijing.

The NHL looks at the NBA, which has had a foothold in China for decades, as a blueprint for the future. But before there's a hockey version of Yao Ming, Chinese fans need to learn more about the sport.

Andong Song, the first Chinese player drafted by an NHL team, said most people in his homeland didn't know much about hockey even when the New York Islanders took him in the sixth round in June of 2015. Song was part of China's presentation to the International Olympic Committee alongside Yao and said getting the Games in 2022 got people buzzing about hockey and other winter sports.

From the initial meetings with Chinese government officials, the league and NHL Players' Association saw untapped potential.

''The exciting thing is you're starting from a baseline of zero, so any effect that we have is going to be a positive effect,'' NHL chief revenue officer and executive VP of global partnerships Keith Wachtel said by phone from Beijing. ''The question is just how much, and that's going to be about the dedication of resources that we have.''

While the exact financial investment the league is making in China was not revealed, it's substantial.

Proper said the league will put on at least 15 clinics in China this year in addition to what teams might also be doing. The Canucks, Kings, Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Washington Capitals have already conducted camps for young Chinese players.

As China aims for 2022, Proper considers it a ''perfect storm'' of a motivated government and private sector combined with a league that wants to spread out far beyond North America and Europe.

''When somebody comes to you and says, 'We are committed to 300 million people playing winter sports and hockey is one of the primary winter sports we want to focus on,' you have to make that country a priority and you really have to kind of figure out how to help them as best they can to achieve their goals,'' Proper said.

The NHL is getting a lift from goaltender-turned-billionaire Zhou Yunjie, chairman of metal can manufacturing company ORG Packaging, in making strides in China. The league signed a multiyear deal with ORG Packaging and will use some of that money to help refine Chinese hockey infrastructure while trying to increase exposure, sell jerseys and make an impact.

The ultimate goal is talent development, which will spawn fandom and interest if a Chinese player turns into an NHL star.

''We think that it's only a matter of time till we're able to get a Chinese national into the NHL,'' Wachtel said. ''That will be the proof point when millions of kids are playing the sport in China and one day that you see one of those kids that was in a clinic that was run by the NHL and ORG and all our other partners that that kid is playing in the NHL.''

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PITTSBURGH - Artemi Panarin and Richard Panik started a four-goal first period for Chicago, and the Blackhawks moved closer to locking up the Central Division title with a 5-1 victory over the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night.

Marcus Kruger and Marian Hossa also scored during an explosive first period as the Blackhawks moved nine points clear of second-place Minnesota with five games left in the regular season. Tanner Kero added a breakaway goal in the third. Patrick Kane picked up two assists to move past Sidney Crosby and into second place in the NHL scoring race.

Corey Crawford stopped 31 shots for Chicago, which beat the Penguins in regulation on the road for the first time since 1997.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 31 saves but received little help outside of Bryan Rust's third-period goal. The defending Stanley Cup champions saw their winless streak reach four games, and their chances to catch first-place Washington atop the Metropolitan Division took another hit.

Pittsburgh is struggling with the playoffs two weeks away while missing injured regulars Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Ron Hainsey, Jake Guentzel, and Carl Hagelin. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks are surging.

Chicago overwhelmed the Penguins seemingly from the opening faceoff, showcasing all the speed and creativity that have the Blackhawks looking like the best team in the Western Conference and a serious threat to add to the three Cups they've captured since 2010.

The Penguins started Fleury over Matt Murray, who has struggled recently while Fleury has regained his form since the team opted to hold onto him at the trading deadline. Given a chance to perhaps make serious inroads on Murray's grasp of the No. 1 spot, Fleury instead spent the opening 20 minutes trying to contend with a seemingly endless series of odd-man rushes that left the Penguins flat-footed and the Blackhawks rolling.

Panarin opened the scoring 3:23 in when he banked in a shot from in close off Fleury's right leg. The goal was the easy part. The hard part came courtesy of Kane, who darted behind the Pittsburgh net preparing to attempt a wraparound only to drop a backhand pass to Panarin at the left post. Fleury, believing Kane still had the puck, was caught looking the other way while Panarin executed the hockey version of a lay-up, gently flipping it off Fleury and into the net.

Panik doubled Chicago's lead 14:39 into the first when he powered home a shot from the slot past Fleury's outstretched glove. Kruger's fourth of the year with 55 seconds left in the first came courtesy of a deft touch pass from Kane. Hossa finished off a 3-on-1 by firing it by Fleury with 16 seconds left, and Chicago's 20-minute clinic was complete.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan switched up the lines but stuck with Fleury, who settled down, but by then the damage was already done.

NOTES: Chicago tied a franchise record with its 24th road win of the season. ... The Blackhawks went 0 for 4 on the power play. The Penguins were 0 for 2. ... The Penguins last dropped consecutive games by four goals on Jan. 3 and Jan. 5, 2009. ... Pittsburgh's last four-game winless streak came in Sullivan's first four games on the job in December 2015.

UP NEXT

Blackhawks: Host Columbus on Friday. The Blue Jackets edged Chicago 3-2 on Oct. 21.

Penguins: Visit the New York Rangers on Friday. Pittsburgh has won two of the first three meetings this season.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - T.J. Oshie scored his second goal of the game 1:42 into overtime to bookend Alex Ovechkin's hat trick, Braden Holtby earned his 40th win, and the NHL-leading Washington Capitals beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 on Tuesday night for their fifth straight victory.

After Eric Staal's goal for the Wild tied the game with 26.6 seconds left in regulation, Oshie took a pass in the left circle from Marcus Johansson and beat struggling Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk with a wrist shot. Johansson had four assists.

Martin Hanzal and Jason Pominville had a goal and an assist apiece, but the Wild lost for the eighth time in nine games and fell to 3-11-1 in March after forward Zach Parise exited early with an injury .

Oshie started Washington's longest road trip in six years, five games over an eight-day span, with a first-period goal set up by Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Holtby made 26 saves, brushing off goals by Jared Spurgeon and Staal in the final five minutes to reach 40 victories for the third consecutive season. Martin Brodeur (2005-08, New Jersey) and Evgeni Nabokov (2007-10, San Jose) are the only other goalies in NHL history to do so.

Dubnyk, who stopped 15 shots, has given up 26 goals over his last eight games.

Ovechkin gave him even more trouble, guiding the Capitals one step closer to the Presidents' Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs. His 17th career three-goal game came all on power plays.

After Nate Prosser was penalized for hooking, Backstrom and Johansson set up Ovechkin for a vintage left-circle wrist shot to finish the tic-tac-toe sequence and break a tie. Dubnyk was slow to pivot right after going down to a knee on a pass.

Ovechkin, the gap-toothed great, took over the team goal lead from Oshie with a slap shot from the same spot a little later in the second period following a hooking call on Nino Niederreiter.

Then, after Hanzal scored for just the second time in 14 games with the Wild since arriving in a trade with Arizona, Ovechkin triggered a shower of hats from the crowd by burying a feed from Backstrom.

Ovechkin has a whopping 11 goals and six assists in six career games against Dubnyk, four of those with Minnesota.

The Wild, who once had a cushion on Chicago for the Western Conference lead, must hold off surging Nashville and St. Louis in the Central Division to make sure they can at least start the first round at home. This was a promising performance against such a daunting opponent, especially after losing Parise, but there's a lot of work left for them to do on their game before the postseason.

Parise took a high stick from Tom Wilson to the face and collided with Jay Beagle's knee on his fall to the ice, where he stayed for several seconds while kicking his feet in pain before needing assistance off the ice. Parise didn't return, and the Wild went without a whimper on their four-minute power play.

NOTES: After 12 straight home games without allowing a power-play goal, the Wild have given up four in their last two games. ... Oshie has nine goals and 10 assists in 25 career games against the Wild. He played in high school in Warroad, Minnesota.

UP NEXT

Capitals: At the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

Wild: Host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

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TORONTO - Auston Matthews broke Wendel Clark's 31-year-old franchise rookie record with his 35th goal of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs earned a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

The victory kept Toronto (87 points) one point up on the Boston Bruins (86) for the third playoff spot in the Atlantic Division and four up on the Tampa Bay Lightning (83).

Curtis McElhinney made 25 saves to earn the win for the Leafs. Leo Komarov and Zach Hyman also scored for Toronto.

James Reimer allowed two goals on 14 shots for Florida before he was knocked from the game with an injury and replaced by Reto Berra, who made 10 saves. Reilly Smith and Jaromir Jagr scored for the Panthers.

Starting in place of injured No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, McElhinney was the focus of attention in Toronto heading into the game, but Matthews quickly wiped that away with his record-setting score nearly 12 minutes in.

Hyman instigated the action, controlling the puck from behind the Florida goal before finding Matthews in front, his shot slipping between the pads of Reimer to top Clark for the franchise mark.

Clark said he knew after the second period of Matthews' NHL debut against Ottawa - when he scored four goals, including three after less than 22 minutes - that Matthews would likely shatter his record from the 1985-86 season.

''It's good,'' said Clark, who works as a community representative of the Leafs. ''If we're going to be any good we need these young guys breaking all (these records) and doing well.''

Mitch Marner recently tied Gus Bodnar's franchise rookie mark for assists (40), William Nylander matching team rookie records for power-play goals (nine) and power-play points (25) while also establishing a new rookie mark for the team with a point streak that was extended to 12 games on Tuesday night.

Matthews joined Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby as the only rookies since the 1995-96 season to scored 35 goals.

Clark compared him to former Leafs captain and franchise leading scorer, Mats Sundin. Just like Sundin, Clark said, Matthews could be dangerous all by himself, but also gifted in finding teammates for open looks.

He said Matthews had a ''goal-scorer's touch'' and the ''hands of a little guy'', his strength also likely to grow in the years ahead.

Matthews also increased his NHL lead for game-opening goals - now with 14 on the season - and pulled within four points of Peter Ihnacak's franchise rookie mark for points (66), set during the 1982-83 season.

The Leafs controlled almost every aspect of the first period, outshooting the Panthers 13-3 while spending shift after shift in Florida's zone. Komarov increased Toronto's lead to 2-0 less than three minutes after Matthews's goal, finishing a 2-on-1 opportunity with Connor Brown.

Falling out of the playoff race in recent weeks, Florida found some pushback in the opening minutes of the second, but McElhinney was sharp. He stopped Jussi Jokinen and Smith on consecutive chances around the midway point of the period.

The 33-year-old was starting with Andersen missing his first game because of an upper-body injury suffered Saturday in Buffalo when he was bumped in the head by Sabres forward William Carrier.

It was a similar play that knocked out Reimer - Toronto's longtime starter before Andersen - from Tuesday's game, Brian Boyle clipping him as he circled the net. Reimer stayed down in apparent discomfort immediately afterward as Boyle fought Colton Sceviour. He finally helped to a sitting position by a team trainer and left the ice with a persistent grimace on his face.

Smith got the Panthers on the board with less than five minutes left in the second, beating Matthews to the net as he redirected Keith Yandle's point pass.

McElhinney made two big saves early in the third to keep the Leafs in front, the latter a right pad stop on Aleksander Barkov. It was shortly after, that Hyman scored a short-handed goal that increased Toronto's lead back to two.

Hyman became the fifth Leafs rookie to score at least 10 goals this season.

Jagr pulled Florida within one in the final minute of regulation.

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BOSTON - Tuukka Rask made 24 saves in his return from a one-game absence and the Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 on Tuesday night, boosting their playoff chances.

Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Noel Acciari and David Backes scored for the Bruins, who moved three points ahead of idle Tampa Bay for the second Eastern Conference wild card with six games remaining. Boston began the night a point behind Toronto for third place in the Atlantic Division.

Rask was sidelined with a lower-body injury for Boston's 2-1 road win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.

Bergeron's goal was his 18th of the season, and Krejci got his 22nd. Acciari scored his first career goal in 43 NHL games, Backes netted his 17th of the season and Zdeno Chara earned his 600th NHL point with an assist on Boston's first goal.

Craig Smith scored his 10th goal for the Predators, who had their four-game winning streak snapped. Pekka Rinne made 27 saves but took his first loss in six starts.

Nashville remained one point ahead of idle St. Louis for third in the Central Division.

The Predators had won three straight meetings with the Bruins, including a 2-1 victory Jan. 12 in Nashville.

Bergeron opened the scoring 2:28 into the first period, slamming home a rebound after Chara's shot from the blue line bounced off Rinne's leg.

Krejci's wrister trickled through Rinne's legs to double the Bruins' lead at 13:52 of the first.

Smith redirected Roman Josi's shot past Rask to cut the Nashville's deficit in half with 8:44 remaining in the third.

Acciari tapped in a shot-pass from Riley Nash as the Bruins converted on a 3-on-1 chance with 4:13 to play. Backes scored an empty-netter with 1:31 left to seal it.

NOTES: Nashville C Mike Fisher (lower body) missed his fourth straight game. Predators general manager David Poile told 102.5 The Game radio Tuesday he is hopeful Fisher can return ''as soon as Thursday.'' ... Predators D Yannick Weber (upper body) sat out for the second consecutive night. ... Boston C Tim Schaller (lower body) missed his ninth game in a row. ... Chara was named the Bruins' nominee for the Masterson Trophy, which honors dedication to hockey. ''It's a game that gives you so much delight and makes you a better person,'' the 40-year-old defenseman said. ... Boston recalled G Zane McIntyre from Providence of the AHL on an emergency basis two hours before the game, but was returned during the first-period intermission.

UP NEXT

Predators: Open a two-game homestand Thursday against Toronto.

Bruins: Continue a three-game homestand Thursday against Dallas.

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RALEIGH, N.C. - Lee Stempniak and Joakim Nordstrom scored about five minutes apart in the first period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 Tuesday night in the teams' second meeting in two nights.

Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm also scored for Carolina and Cam Ward stopped 21 shots. The Hurricanes have earned a point in 12 straight games (8-0-4) to move four points out of the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.

The Red Wings beat the Hurricanes on Monday in a makeup game rescheduled from Dec. 19 when a Freon leak at PNC Arena made for unplayable ice. Tuesday's contest was regularly scheduled.

The postponement resulted in three games in the three days for the Red Wings. They won the first two but visibly struggled with their energy in the finale to snap a four-game point streak.

Tomas Nosek scored his first NHL goal and Jimmy Howard made 29 saves for Detroit.

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NEW YORK - Viktor Arvidsson scored early in the second period, Juuse Saros stopped 24 shots and the Nashville Predators held on to beat the New York Islanders 3-1 Monday night for their fourth straight win.

Kevin Fiala and Ryan Johansen also scored to help the surging Predators win for the seventh time in eight games and remain in control of third place in the Central Division.

Josh Bailey scored and Thomas Greiss finished with 28 saves for the Islanders, who remained two points behind Boston for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. New York has lost six of its last nine overall (3-5-1) and is 0-4-1 in its last five at Barclays Center since earning a point in 11 straight (9-0-2) on home ice.

Arvidsson made it 2-0 at 3:15 of the second as he deflected a centering pass from Filip Forsberg past Greiss for his 29th, tying him with Forsberg for the team lead. The goal was reviewed but stood after it was determined the puck went off Arvidsson's skate and then his stick before going in.

It was Arvidsson's sixth goal in eight games and Nashville's NHL-leading 95th in the second period this season.

The Islanders were booed midway through the period as they failed to get a good scoring chance on their second power play of the game. New York finished 0 for 2 on the man advantage, falling to 2 for 21 over their last eight games.

Johansen added an empty-netter for his 13th with 21 seconds left.

Bailey got the Islanders on the board with 2:40 left in the middle period as he deflected a shot by Nick Leddy from the left side down and past Saros. It was Bailey's 13th goal of the season and first in 16 games.

The Predators appeared to take the lead about 8 1/2 minutes into the game when Ryan Ellis fired a shot from the right point that seemed to deflect off an Islanders defender and past Greiss. However, New York interim coach Doug Weight challenged for offside and the goal was waved off after a video review showed Fiala was indeed guilty of the infraction.

Fiala made up for it when he put Nashville ahead at 10:17 by firing a shot from the high slot past Greiss' blocker side for his ninth.

NOTES: Predators C Mike Fisher missed his third straight game due to a lower-body injury. ... D Roman Josi played in his 400th career game, all with Nashville. ... Johansen's goal was his 58th point, keeping him two ahead of Arvidsson for the team lead. ... The Predators improved to 23-3-7 when scoring first and 27-1-5 when leading after two periods. The teams conclude their two-game season series April 4 at Nashville. ... The Islanders agreed to terms with F John Stevens on a two-year, entry-level contract. The 22-year-old had five goals and 23 assists this past season as a senior at Northeastern and totaled 26 goals and 80 assists in four seasons with the Huskies. ... Islanders D Johnny Boychuk missed his 12th straight game with a lower-body injury. F Ryan Strome missed his third straight with an upper-body injury sustained last week in win at New York Rangers. ... The Islanders play five of their last seven games on the road, where they are 15-16-5.

UP NEXT

Predators: At Boston on Tuesday night.

Islanders: At Philadelphia on Thursday night.

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WASHINGTON - Fourteen U.S. senators wrote a letter to USA Hockey's executive director Monday over their concerns about the treatment of the women's national team.

Players have threatened to boycott the upcoming world championships over a wage dispute. The senators, all Democrats, urged David Ogrean to resolve the matter and ensure the team receives ''equitable resources.'' They cited the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.

USA Hockey's board of directors meets Monday, and players said Sunday night they hope there's a deal.

The senators joined a chorus of support that also includes unions representing players from the NHL, NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball. Those organizations said over the weekend they stood with the women's team and criticized USA Hockey for attempting to find replacement players.

The U.S. is the defending champion at the International Ice Hockey Women's World Championship, which begins Friday in Plymouth, Michigan.

In negotiations over the past 15 months, players have asked for a four-year contract that pays them outside the six-month Olympic period. The senators' letter notes the $6,000 that players earn around the Olympics and USA Hockey's $3.5 million annual spending on the men's national team development program and other discrepancies.

''These elite athletes indeed deserve fairness and respect, and we hope you will be a leader on this issue as women continue to push for equality in athletics,'' the senators wrote.

In a statement Sunday night, players said they hoped USA Hockey would approve terms discussed last week. They said the agreement has the ''potential to be a game changer for everyone.''

The letter was signed by: Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washington, Dianne Feinstein of California, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Thomas Carper of Delaware, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.

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EDMONTON, Alberta - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Drake Caggiula each had a goal and an assist and the Edmonton Oilers moved into a three-way tie atop the Pacific Division with a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Benoit Pouliot and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers, who have won six of their last seven games and are now tied with San Jose and Anaheim at 91 points.

Sven Andrighetto scored for the Avalanche, who have dropped five games in a row.

Edmonton took a 1-0 lead on its first shot 1:54 into the opening period when Pouliot tipped Matt Benning's point shot past goalie Calvin Pickard.

Andrighetto scored 45 seconds later by fighting off Adam Larsson and tucked the puck past goalie Laurent Brossoit, who had 24 saves.

The Oilers retook the lead midway through the first on a goal from Draisaitl - his 27th goal and 70th point.

After a scoreless second period, the Oilers made it 3-1 with 11:14 remaining in the third when Caggiula redirected Nugent-Hopkins' pass past Pickard on the power play.

Nugent-Hopkins put the game away with another power-play goal with 4 1/2 minutes to play, his 16th of the season.

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