Steven Stamkos scored three goals for his first hat trick of the season Friday, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the New York Islanders 6-4.
Corey Perry, Ryan McDonagh and Brandon Hagel also scored for Tampa Bay, which trailed by two before scoring five times in the third period.
Ondrej Palat added three assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots as the Lightning (51-23-8) secured third place in the Atlantic Division with 110 points.
The Lightning will take on the second-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs (54-21-7, 115 points) in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs starting Monday. Games 1 and 2 are in Toronto, with Games 3 and 4 at Amalie Arena starting Friday.
Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at the Lightning's website.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kieffer Bellows, Josh Bailey and Zdeno Chara scored for the Islanders, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
New York (37-35-10) reached the Stanley Cup semifinals the last two years before losing to the Lightning, who went on to win the finals each time.
Ilya Sorokin had 28 saves.
Lightning-Maple Leafs schedule:
- Monday: at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.
- Wednesday: at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.
- Friday: at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.
- Sunday: at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.
- x-May 10: at Toronto
- x-May 12: at Tampa Bay
- x-May 14: at Toronto
x-if necessary
In other series:
Eastern Conference:
- Carolina Hurricanes vs. Boston Bruins
- Florida Panthers vs. Washington Capitals
- New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
Western Conference:
- Colorado Avalanche vs. Nashville Predators
- Calgary Flames vs. Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild vs. St. Louis Blues
- Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings
WUSF staff writer Carl Lisciandrello contributed to this report.
