EDMONTON, Alberta - Cam Talbot made 35 saves for his second consecutive shutout and seventh of the season as the Edmonton Oilers ended an eight-game homestand with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.

Patrick Maroon and Milan Lucic scored for the Oilers, who won their fourth in a row to move one point ahead of Calgary and into a tie for second place in the Pacific Division with Anaheim. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each had a pair of assists.

McDavid leads the NHL with 82 points.

Jonathan Quick stopped 29 shots for the fading Kings, who have lost four of five, further dashing their playoff hopes.

Maroon batted the rebound of McDavid's shot out of midair and past Quick just 64 seconds into the game. It was Maroon's 25th goal of the season - his previous career high was 12.

The Oilers made it 2-0 on the power play with seven minutes left in the opening period as Lucic corralled a loose puck in the crease and slid it under Quick for his 17th. The goal ended a streak of 34 consecutive penalty kills on the road for the Kings.

The Oilers outshot Los Angeles 15-7 in the first, but the Kings recovered and had 28 the rest of the way as Talbot stood tall in net.

The Kings had a power play late in the third, but were unable to get anything past Talbot.

NOTES: The Oilers lead the five-game season series 2-1. The next time the teams face each other is March 28, also in Edmonton. ... Quick was pulled after giving up two goals on seven shots during a 5-2 loss in Calgary on Sunday. ... Talbot made his league-high 65th start of the season. His seven shutouts are the most for an Oilers goalie since Tommy Salo in 2001-02.

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TORONTO - Tyler Bozak scored the go-ahead power-play goal with less than two minutes left and the Toronto Maple Leafs earned a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

The win pulled the Leafs (81 points) within one point of the Bruins (82 points) for third place in the Atlantic division.

Toronto, holding the final wild-card position in the Eastern Conference, also has a game in hand.

Morgan Rielly, William Nylander and Nazem Kadri also scored for the Leafs, who swept the season series with Boston. Frederik Andersen was sharp with 32 saves, James van Riemsdyk added two assists.

David Backes and Dominic Moore scored for the Bruins, Tuukka Rask allowed two goals on 27 shots.

A malfunctioning clock briefly delayed the start of the game and wasn't used until the start of the third period.

Game time was announced at stoppages by the public address announcer and displayed in a corner of the videoboard - issues that were most apparent during power plays with no time counting down penalties.

The opening 20 minutes were choppy as a result of the malfunctions but also entertaining. The two teams traded chances with playoff positioning on the line.

The Bruins opened the scoring though just over seven minutes in.

Emerging Hart Trophy candidate Brad Marchand set up Backes for the goal, one he fired as two Leafs defenders - Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev - converged without effect.

Marchand earned his 80th point of the season on the play, duking it out with Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Patrick Kane, among others, for MVP as well as the Art Ross Trophy for the league's top scorer.

Marchand was selected as the first star for last week by the NHL after getting five goals and nine points in three games. Backes, meanwhile, was questionable to even play after missing the morning skate with an illness.

There was a playoff-like vibe to the evening with intensity and scrappy play to match.

Connor Carrick, who was returning from an 11-game absence because of an injury, traded feisty blows at one point with David Pastrnak. The Bruins were perturbed a short while later when Nikita Soshnikov hit Patrice Bergeron from behind in the corner of the Boston zone.

Bergeron leaped up after the hit and grabbed Soshnikov with both players drawing minor penalties.

The Leafs gained energy as the period went on.

After nearly scoring on a pass from van Riemsdyk, Mitch Marner dished to Rielly for the game-tying goal with less than six minutes remaining in the first. Rielly's initial attempt was stopped by Rask, but the defender's momentum carried him and the puck (off his leg) into the goal.

It was the sixth goal of the season for Rielly and third in the past five games.

Toronto had a two-man advantage for more than a minute late in the first, but failed to score. Brian Boyle's tip of a point shot was stopped as was Auston Matthews' shot on a drop feed from Kadri.

Marchand's pesky ways were apparent early in the second, the 28-year-old goading Zaitsev into a cross-checking penalty. The Russian defenseman, noticeably frustrated, first hacked Marchand's leg after the whistle and then shoved him into the sideboards.

The Leafs nearly went ahead in the opening minutes of the third - seconds on the clock successfully ticking down on the scoreboard - Zach Hyman's shot from in tight was stopped by Rask with Matthews unable to get his stick on a rebound. A few minutes later, Marner spun around and dished a one-time feed to van Riemsdyk, who whistled a shot wide.

Then Boston proceeded to nearly score when Andersen bobbled a shot off the rush, the Bruins circling for the rebound.

Bergeron drew the ire of the Leafs when he bumped Andersen - with help from a shove from Leo Komarov. Komarov and Bergeron traded chirps and shoves between whistles.

The Leafs got a power play with less than three minutes to go in the third when Moore was whistled for interfering with Soshnikov. A day after his 31st birthday, Bozak beat Rask from the slot for the go-ahead goal - his 17th of the season.

Nylander extended his point streak to eight games by scoring his 19th of the season into an empty net.

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PITTSBURGH - Jake Guentzel still finds himself staring. And really, it's kind of hard to blame him.

A year ago he was fresh out of Nebraska-Omaha trying to find his legs with the Pittsburgh Penguins' AHL affiliate, all speed and youth and talent anxious at what the future might hold.

And here he is now, the youngest member of the NHL's hottest line, sharing the ice with his childhood idol thinking to himself, `Yes, that really is Sidney Crosby over there.''

Gulp.

''It's crazy,'' Guentzel said with a shrug.

And at the moment kind of unstoppable for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who remain in the thick of the Metropolitan Division race with Washington and Columbus despite missing 66 percent of its starting blue line and center Evgeni Malkin, who is out with an upper body injury that will keep him out of the lineup in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Yet the Penguins have stayed afloat anyway thanks in part to Crosby's usual brilliance and an unexpected alliance created on the fly by head coach Mike Sullivan.

Developing chemistry with the best player in the world can be an inexact science. Crosby, the 22-year-old Guentzel and 24-year-old Conor Sheary have created some almost instantaneously since Sullivan threw them together against Edmonton earlier this month.

In the six games since they've started hopping over the boards together, they've combined for 10 of Pittsburgh's 20 goals and racked up 16 assists.

Every red-light moment of Crosby's natural hat trick in Sunday's 4-0 victory over Florida came courtesy of the sticks of his precocious linemates, the ones who make up for in enthusiasm and innate hockey IQ what they lack in experience.

''The main thing is that we're consistently getting chances,'' said Crosby, who leads the NHL with 40 goals. ''With that, it doesn't matter who gets them, they'll go in. Those guys have a ton of speed and they're strong on pucks and making plays. We'll continue to get better.''

They'll certainly continue to play together indefinitely, though Crosby isn't one for trying to come up with some sort of gimmicky nickname like the ''HBK'' - Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel - that played so well together during last spring's run to the Cup a local restaurant chain created a sandwich in their honor.

''I never got into the lines or the nicknames and I'm not going to start now,'' Crosby said with a laugh. ''I'll leave that up to you guys.''

At 29, Crosby's old enough to know that nothing lasts forever. ''HBK'' might have been a revelation last summer, but they've long since split up.

For now, Sid and the Kids (just a suggestion) will keep doing what they're doing, which is mainly keeping defenses scrambling to keep up.

''Sid's the glue there that holds that line together but certainly the three of them, to a man they've all played terrific for us,'' Sullivan said.

While playing alongside Crosby certainly helps, Sheary and Guentzel are more than keeping up. Sheary managed just seven goals in 44 games as a rookie in 2015-16. He's already at 20 goals in 51 so far this season, a 5-foot-8 gnat in skates relentlessly working his way into tight spaces or beating opponents to loose pucks.

They also keep their heads up rather than developing tunnel vision about getting to the net and hoping for the best. Call it the byproduct of knowing Crosby is liable to try to find them at any moment while trying to thread a pass few others can make.

Crosby and Sheary both offered Guentzel - who had two goals during his auspicious NHL debut in a loss to the New York Rangers in November - the same bit of advice so he wouldn't get too wide-eyed.

''I may have told him once or twice just play your game,'' said Sheary, who went through a similar indoctrination process of learning to play with Crosby last season. ''Other than that he's a smart enough player, he's a good enough player. He can play with anyone.''

It certainly looks that way. While it's hard to imagine Steph Curry or LeBron James hitting the court with two rookies in tow, Crosby has embraced the opportunity.

While Sullivan stressed that Crosby remains ''the glue,'' having two players who seem immune to the pressure that comes with playing in the spotlight with the face of the NHL helps.

''I don't think one's a scorer or one's a passer,'' Sullivan said. ''I think they're hockey players and they just play hockey. When the shot's there, they shoot. When it's not, they have the vision and the awareness and they see it.''

And just as importantly, they're oblivious to the pressure of the moment. A quality that will be in high demand when Pittsburgh begins its quest to become the first team in two decades to repeat next month. No staring allowed.

''Growing up you watch (Crosby),'' Guentzel said. ''So to be honest it's pretty special. I'm trying to make the most of it.''

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MONTREAL - Carey Price made 30 saves for his 33rd win of the season and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Sunday night to sweep the home-and-home series.

Tomas Plekanec, Jordie Benn, Paul Byron and Nathan Beaulieu scored for the Canadiens, who lead the Atlantic Division by four points over the Senators, who still have one game in hand.

Tom Pyatt scored a first-period goal for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 33 shots.

The Canadiens also beat the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday, winning 4-3 in a shootout. Price made 28 saves in that game, while Anderson stopped 29 shots in defeat.

With Montreal leading 2-1 in the third period Sunday, Byron made it a two-goal lead for the Canadiens when he went five-hole on Anderson at 3:30, opting to shoot while on a 2-on-1 with Plekanec.

The goal was Byron's 20th of the season. He also added an assist on Montreal's first goal of the game.

Beaulieu made in 4-1, on the power play, scoring with a slap shot from the blue line with Anderson screened by Artturi Lehkonen at 5:08.

Montreal is now 8-4-2 in the second game of a back-to-back. The Senators are 6-4-1.

Sunday's game had big playoff implications, and the energy on the ice and atmosphere in the stands were definitely playoff-like. Montreal came out flying, only needing 28 seconds to get the sell-out crowd off its feet.

Plekanec scored his first goal since Jan. 24 when Andrei Markov's shot from the point bounced off Anderson's chest and fell right to the veteran center in the crease for his eighth of the season.

The lead was short-lived as Pyatt scored the equalizer at 4:36 of the first when his shot from close range deflected off Benn's stick and skipped over Price's outstretched pad.

Benn made up for the mistake later in the same period when his shot from the point deflected off Viktor Stalberg's stick to beat Anderson glove side at 17:45.

NOTES: Price only faced six shots in the second period, but needed to be at his best when Kyle Turris fired a one-timer. The Canadiens goalie sprang to his right and did the splits to get his toe on the puck. ... Montreal's Alexei Emelin was back in the lineup after he was a healthy scratch in Ottawa. ... The Canadiens are 10-4-0 under Claude Julien. ... Torrey Mitchell played his 600th NHL game.

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NEWARK, N.J. - Lukas Sedlak and Brandon Dubinsky scored on penalty shots and the Columbus Blue Jackets clinched their third playoff berth in franchise history with a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.

This was only the third time in NHL history that a team scored twice in a game on penalty shots. Thomas Gradin and Ivan Hlinka of Vancouver did it against Detroit in 1982, and Ryane Clowe and Joe Thornton of San Jose converted against Washington in 2009.

The win was the fourth straight for the Blue Jackets, gave them their first 100-point season and moved them into a tie with Washington for the NHL's best record with 11 games left. Columbus, which joined the league in 2000, last made the playoffs in 2014.

Boone Jenner added two goals, one short-handed and the other into an empty net. Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves for Columbus, which is 12-3-1 in its last 16 games.

Adam Henrique scored for the Devils, whose season is all but over after falling to 1-10-2 in its last 13.

Columbus, which was its second game in as many days, jumped to a 2-0 lead with a pair of short-handed goals on the Devils' first two power plays.

Sedlak, who was in the lineup because Alexander Wennberg was hurt on Saturday against the Islanders, was taken down by Devils defenseman Andy Greene on a breakaway a minute after Josh Anderson was sent off for tripping.

On his penalty shot, Sedlak skated to the edge of the right circle, cut toward the middle and beat Cory Schneider with a low shot to the left corner for his seventh goal.

With Matt Calvert off for tripping, Jenner outworked three Devils behind the net to gain control of the puck and eventually knocked the rebound of Jack Johnson's shot off Schneider at 10:23 for his 15th goal.

Henrique got the Devils back into the game just seven seconds later, breaking in after taking a pass from Pavel Zacha and sliding the puck between the legs of Bobrovsky.

Dubinsky converted the second penalty shot at 6:28 of the second period after Anderson was taken down on a breakaway by Dalton Prout. Anderson was hurt on the play and there was some confusion about who would take the shot.

Columbus coach John Tortorella initially sent out Sam Gagner to take it, but the officials ruled that he was not on the ice at the time of the penalty. Dubinsky took it, beating Schneider high to the left corner with a move similar to the one by Sedlak.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. - Jake Allen stopped 31 shots for his fourth shutout of the season to lead the playoff-contending St. Louis Blues to a 3-0 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.

Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo and David Perron scored to help the Blues win for the seventh time in eight games overall and beat the Coyotes for the ninth straight time. It was St. Louis' fifth shutout since Feb. 2.

Allen improved to 6-0-0 in his career against the Coyotes and earned his 15th career shutout. He stopped Teemu Pulkkinnen's breakaway shot at 12:23 of the second period to keep the Coyotes scoreless.

The Coyotes failed to earn a point from a game for the first time since a March 5 loss to Carolina. Mike Smith stopped 37 shots.

Upshall extended the Blues' lead to 2-0 at 2:52 of the second period. He took the puck from behind the net back up the ice, turned around and shot the puck into traffic and past Smith for his ninth of the season.

Smith's saves included a fairly easy one when the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko was awarded a penalty shot with 45.6 seconds left in the second. But Tarasenko held the puck for too long and didn't shoot until he was almost behind the net.

Perron scored a short-handed empty-net goal with 1:03 to play in the game.

The Coyotes played without captain Shane Doan for the first time this season. Doan missed some time early in Thursday's game to be checked for a concussion after a collision with a teammate during pregame warmups, but returned to the ice and played. He was listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Doan, 40, is the all-time franchise leader in games played, goals, assists and points, and had played in all 70 games this season. He remains on pace to play the most amount of games he has since the 2009-2010 season, when he appeared in all 82 games.

The Coyotes lost defenseman Anthony DeAngelo less than two minutes into the game when he was called for boarding and given a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct. DeAngelo checked the Blues' Zach Sanford into the boards face-first.

Sanford went to the locker room and missed the rest of the first period, but returned in the second.

The Coyotes were three seconds away from killing DeAngelo's penalty when Pietrangelo fired a long-range shot that eluded Smith for the game's first goal. Paul Stastny provided the pass that set up Pietrangelo's 10th of the season.

NOTES: The Coyotes held a pregame ceremony to honor veteran C Radim Vrbata, who recently played in his 1,000th career game. Vrbata's gifts for his achievement included a silver stick, a painting and a pair of tickets to the 2018 Wimbledon final. ... C Jori Lehtera (upper body injury) and F Dmitrij Jaskin (upper body) were scratched for the Blues, along with healthy scratches Jordan Schmaltz and Nail Yakupov.

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OTTAWA - Paul Byron and Alexander Radulov scored in the shootout to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night in the first half of the teams' home-and-home series.

Andrew Shaw, Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher scored in regulation for Montreal, and Carey Price finished with 28 saves. Montreal extended its lead in the Atlantic Division to two points over second-place Ottawa.

The teams meet again Sunday at Montreal.

Derick Brassard, Ryan Dzingel and Erik Karlsson scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson, who had missed the past two games with a lower-body injury, stopped 29 shots.

There had been some debate in the morning as to who would start in goal for the Senators as it remained questionable whether Anderson was fit to play.

The Senators had a chance to win in overtime when Max Pacioretty took a penalty, but were unable to capitalize on the power play.

Trailing 2-1 to start the third, the Canadiens scored twice within 31 seconds.

Danault tied the game as he was able to beat Anderson through the legs at the 6:15 mark - it was Montreal's first shot of the period despite having just come off a power play. Then, Gallagher gave the Canadiens the lead, beating Anderson over the shoulder from a sharp angle.

With just under five minutes remaining Karlsson tied the game with a shot from the point.

After 40 minutes the Senators held a 2-1 lead after scoring twice in a span of 76 seconds.

Montreal opened the scoring at the two-minute mark of the second period after a defensive breakdown by Ottawa that allowed Danault to find Shaw all alone at the side of the net.

The Canadiens took advantage of the momentum and held the edge in play until the Senators tied things with a power-play goal with 7:24 to go in the period as Kyle Turris found Brassard streaking through the slot and was able to beat Price stick side.

Just over a minute later, Dzingel gave the Senators the lead as he battled for the puck at the side of the net and was able to squeeze it behind Price.

NOTES: Ottawa D Mark Borowiecki was back in the lineup after missing the last four games with a lower-body injury. ... Senators RW Mark Stone remains sidelined with a lower-body injury, missing his fourth straight game. ... Montreal D Alexei Emelin, LW Andreas Martinsen and RW Michael McCarron were healthy scratches.

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TAMPA, Fla. - T.J Oshie had three goals and an assist, Justin Williams and John Carlson had early third-period goals, and the Washington Capitals clinched a playoff spot by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 on Saturday night.

Oshie scored twice, including an early power-play goal, as the Capitals took a 2-0 lead midway through the first. He completed the hat trick with an empty-netter during the final minute. Oshie has 10 goals and 19 points in 14 games against Tampa Bay.

Williams had a redirection goal 3:14 into the period before Carlson swatted a thigh-high puck home to make it 4-2 at 5:30.

Washington also got four assists from Nicklas Backstrom, and Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots.

Nikita Kucherov had two goals, and Alex Killorn had the other goal for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves.

Kucherov got Tampa Bay within a goal with 4-3 with 1:30 left, but Oshie sealed it with his third goal.

The Lightning tied it at 2 late in the first as Kucherov, on a power play set up by Oshie's high-sticking penalty, and Killorn had goals 16 seconds apart.

Killorn stopped a 16-game goal drought, while Kucherov got his 32nd goal this season and 100th overall.

Alex Ovechkin assisted on Oshie's goal and tied Florida's Jaromir Jagr for the most points against Tampa Bay with 83. He has played the Lightning 63 times.

Ovechkin, who has one goal in his last 13 games, had a couple of quality chances stopped by Vasilevskiy during the first.

NOTES: Capitals LW Andre Burakovsky returned after missing 15 games with a hand injury. ... Tampa Bay played without with centers Tyler Johnson (five games), Cedric Paquette (five games) and Vladislav Namestnikov (three games), who are all out with lower-body injuries. Center Steven Stamkos, out since right knee surgery in November, went through a full practice Friday but is not ready to play. ... Washington LW Marcus Johansson left due to illness. ... The Capitals have outscored their opponents 73-33 in the first period.

UP NEXT:

Capitals: Play the first of three straight at home against Calgary on Tuesday night.

Lightning: Complete a three-game homestand against Arizona on Tuesday night.

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PITTSBURGH - The depleted Pittsburgh Penguins defense has taken another hit. Coach Mike Sullivan says defenseman Ron Hainsey is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

The Penguins acquired the 35-year-old Hainsey just before the trade deadline. Hainsey has one assist in 10 games since joining Pittsburgh. The Penguins called up Derrick Pouliot from their AHL affiliate in Wilkes Barre/Scranton ahead of Friday night's game against New Jersey to fill in for Hainsey.

Pittsburgh is already missing injured defensemen Kris Letang, Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley, though all three are expected back by the playoffs.

Sullivan said center Evgeni Malkin will sit out Friday with an upper-body injury. Sullivan added Malkin, who is fifth in the league in scoring with 72 points, had been dealing with the injury for some time.

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EDMONTON, Alberta - Patrick Maroon scored twice, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, and Connor McDavid added three assists as the Edmonton Oilers beat up on the Boston Bruins 7-4 on Thursday night.

Benoit Pouliot, Anton Slepyshev, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Milan Lucic also scored for the Oilers, who moved one point ahead of Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division.

David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Dominic Moore, and David Krejci had a goal each for the Bruins, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.

The Oilers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on a pair of goals 59 seconds apart by Maroon, who upped his career-high goal total on the season to 24.

Edmonton got another goal three minutes later as David Desharnais hooked around the net and sent the puck in front to Pouliot, who poked it past goalie Tuukka Rask. It was Pouliot's second goal in two games after breaking a 28-game scoreless drought against Dallas on Tuesday.

Boston got one back on a power play with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the opening frame when Marchand made a perfect pass to set up Pastrnak at the side of the net for his 31st goal of the season, and fifth in his last five games.

The Bruins made it 3-2 with two minutes to go in the first, as Marchand was left alone at the side of the net to score his 37th goal of the season and 12th in his last 11 games.

The Oilers scored again with 51 seconds remaining when Slepyshev batted the rebound of McDavid's shot out of the air and past Rask.

Edmonton made it 5-2 two minutes into the second on the power play as Drake Caggiula's pass went off Bruin forward Riley Nash's skate and into the net. Rask was replaced in the Boston net by Anton Khudobin.

Boston fought back a couple minutes later, getting a short-handed goal from Moore.

Draisaitl made it 6-3 Edmonton seven minutes into the second, picking off a pass at mid-ice and going the distance to score his 60th point, the most ever in an NHL season by a German-born player.

Edmonton added another power-play goal with five minutes left as a puck hit Lucic and got past Khudobin. It was the second game in a row that the Oilers have scored seven goals, and the first time they had done that at home since 1988.

Krejci scored on a Boston man advantage with 32 seconds left in the middle period.

NOTES: There was no scoring in the third, but a brief scare when Boston forward Matt Beleskey was hit in the right side of the head with a shot from Patrice Bergeron in the game's final minute. He was slow to get up, but skated off with the assistance of Bergeron.

UP NEXT

Bruins: Travel to play at Toronto on Sunday.

Oilers: Host Vancouver on Saturday.

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