NEW YORK — T.J. Oshie scored twice, Dmitry Orlov and Nicklas Backstrom each had a goal and two assists, and the first-place Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders 7-3 Thursday night.
Andrei Burakovsky added a goal and an assist, and Lars Eller and John Carlson also scored to help Washington improve to 10-4-3 in its last 17 games against the Islanders. Evgeny Kuznetsov had three assists and Philipp Grubauer finished with 35 saves for his 11th win of the season.
Brock Nelson, Andrew Ladd and Ryan Pulock scored for the Islanders, who lost for the ninth time in 10 games. Christopher Gibson started and gave up five goals on 12 shots before he was pulled midway through the second period. Jaroslav Halak came on and finished with eight saves.
Orlov gave the Capitals a 3-2 lead with 2:43 left in the first as he beat Gibson for his ninth of the season.
Burakovsky extended Washington's lead at 3:12 of the second, and Backstrom made it 5-2 with his 18th with 9:38 remaining in the middle period, ending Gibson's night.
Carlson got his 13th with 4:19 left in the third to give the Capitals a four-goal lead.
Pulock got the Islanders to 6-3 just 52 seconds later, but Oshie scored an empty-netter for his second of the night and 14th of the season with just under two minutes to go.
Maple Leafs 5, Sabres 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. — James van Riemsdyk had two goals and an assist to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
Connor Carrick, Tyler Bozak and Patrick Marleau also scored for the Maple Leafs, and Curtis McElhinney stopped 38 shots.
Van Riemsdyk has five goals in two games after scoring a hat trick in Wednesday's 6-5 shootout win over the Dallas Stars.
Sam Reinhart and Jason Pominville scored for Buffalo, and Robin Lehner finished with 33 saves.
Van Riemsdyk opened the scoring from a bad angle 3:39 into the game as he spun at the end line and flung the puck between Lehner's legs, deflected off the goalie's pad into the net.
Van Riemsdyk set a new single-season career-high for goals three minutes later on his 31st. Left all alone in the Sabres' end, he took his time before firing a wrist shot high to the glove side.
Reinhart got the Sabres on the board with a power-play goal with 5:31 remaining in the first. Reinhart has four goals in his past six games and 26 points in his last 26 games.
Carrick made it 3-1 6:22 into the second period on a long shot through traffic from the point.
Bozak made it 4-1 with 5:50 remaining in the second on a terrific pass by van Riemsdyk. Van Riemsdyk spotted Bozak all alone on the opposite side of the crease and spotted him for Bozak's 11th.
Buffalo cut Toronto's lead to 4-2 with its second power-play goal of the game just before the end of the second. Pominville redirected Rasmus Ristolainen's shot from the point with 58.5 seconds left in the period.
Marleau added an empty-netter with 43.6 seconds remaining.