UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Thomas Greiss made 31 saves in his fifth shutout of the season, helping the New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-0 on Monday night.
Ryan Pulock and Anders Lee scored as New York (40-22-7) improved its playoff positioning in the tough Metropolitan Division. The Islanders improved to 16-8-1 against divisional opponents.
Columbus (38-28-3) lost for the fourth time in six games, dropping into a tie with Montreal for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Sergei Bobrovsky made 18 saves, but the Blue Jackets were unable to get to the steady Greiss.
FLYERS 3, SENATORS 2: Oskar Lindblom, Michael Raffl and Scott Laughton scored in the second period to lead hard-charging Philadelphia to a win over Ottawa at Philadelphia.
The Flyers were 16-23-6 on Jan. 12 and seemingly had lost hope for a playoff appearance, playing out the string under new general manager Chuck Fletcher and interim coach Scott Gordon.
LIGHTNING 6, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Tyler Johnson and Cedric Paquette each scored two goals, and NHL-leading Tampa Bay won at Toronto
Anthony Cirelli and Ondrej Palat also scored for Tampa Bay (53-13-4), and Ryan McDonagh, Yanni Gourde and Jan Rutta had two assists apiece. Nikita Kucherov helped set up the game’s first goal for his NHL-best 111th point of the season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves to improve to 12-1-2 over his last 15 starts.
Auston Matthews and Connor Brown scored for Toronto (42-22-5). Frederik Andersen allowed four goals on 19 shots before he was pulled early in the second period. Garret Sparks finished with 21 saves in relief.
SHARKS 3, WILD 0: Martin Jones made 24 saves to continue his hot streak and lead San Jose to a win at St. Paul, Minnesota.
Barclay Goodrow, Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture scored for the Sharks, who won their fifth straight.
Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves for the Wild.
NOTES
SABRES: Jack Eichel will abide by the NHL’s decision to suspend him two games for an illegal check to Colorado forward Carl Soderberg’s head.
That doesn’t mean the Buffalo Sabres’ captain has to agree with it.
“If you look at the hit and look at the rule book, I didn’t think it matched up,” Eichel said following practice Monday. “It’s kind of frustrating.”
Eichel was suspended Sunday following a hearing with the league’s department of player safety.
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