Pittsburgh Penguins' Kris Letang (58) is congratulated by Sidney Crosby (87) after scoring against the New York Islanders during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, April 14, 2022, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

PITTSBURGH — Jake Guentzel scored twice, Sidney Crosby also had a goal and the Pittsburgh Penguins earned a playoff berth for the 16th straight season with a 6-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.

Guentzel scored his 36th and 37th goals and Crosby his 29th as the Penguins extended the longest active postseason streak among teams in major North American professional sports.

Danton Heinen equaled a career high with his 16th goal, while Kris Letang and Brock McGinn also scored for Pittsburgh, which tied Calgary for the seventh-longest playoff streak in the NHL since 1967. Tristan Jarry made 36 saves for the Penguins, who have won two of three overall. Pittsburgh has 11 wins and points in 15 of its last 17 against the Islanders.

Zach Parise, Anders Lee and Zdeno Chara scored for the Islanders, who have lost three of their last five following a four-game winning streak. Ilya Sorokin stopped 22 shots.

Pittsburgh scored twice in the first nine minutes of the game for an early lead. Letang beat Sorokin at 4:59 with a wrist shot from the left point and Heinen scored on a breakaway at 8:52.

Heinen just left the penalty box after a slashing call when he took a lead pass from Brian Boyle and beat Sorokin with a shot between the legs. Heinen has points in seven of 10 career games against the Islanders. Boyle has points in nine of his last 10 home games and Teddy Blueger established a career high in points with a secondary assist.

Parise cut the deficit in half at 5:51 of the second period. He took a pass from Mathew Barzal off the rush and sent a shot behind Jarry to put the Islanders on the board.

Guentzel regained Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead at 12:10 of the second. Guentzel, on a two-on-one, took a pass from Crosby and beat Sorokin with a blocker-side wrist shot.

Crosby and Guentzel combined for Pittsburgh’s fourth goal at 10:44 of the third period, following New York’s neutral-zone turnover. There was a slick passing sequence between the two on a two-on-none before Crosby finished it off with a slap shot from in close, cementing Pittsburgh’s return to the playoffs.

CAPTAIN CROSBY

Crosby’s goal was the winner, the 78th of his career. That ties Evgeni Malkin and Jaromir Jagr for the franchise record.

Crosby has three goals and eight points in his last three games played. It was his third straight multipoint effort and team-best 25th of the season.

Crosby has a team-high 80 points and he reached the milestone for the 11th time in his career, most among all active players. He’s one goal from 30 for the 10th time in his career and is looking to join Mario Lemieux and Jagr as the only players in franchise history with 10 or more 30-goal seasons.

Crosby has 40 goals and 128 points in 78 career games against the Islanders. Pittsburgh is 49-19-20 in those games.

Only Jagr (155) and Lemieux (131) have more points against the Islanders than Crosby. Crosby has 38 multipoint games against the Islanders and 18 games without any points.

GUENTZEL’S BEST

Guentzel established a career high of 78 points. His previous best was 76, which came in the 2018-19 season. He’s three goals shy of 40 for the second time in his career.

Guentzel has four goals and seven points in his last two games.

UP NEXT

Penguins: Travel to Boston on Saturday night.

LIGHTNING 4, DUCKS 3, OT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Anthony Cirelli scored 1:58 into overtime and Tampa Bay beat Anaheim to clinch a playoff berth.

Ross Colton, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 10 saves before being replaced by Brian Elliott, who stopped all 13 shots he faced.

The Lightning qualified for the playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons. The two-time defending NHL champions are trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup three times in a row since the Islanders won four straight from 1980-83.

Adam Henrique scored twice and Troy Terry added a goal for Anaheim. Anthony Stolarz, making his first career start against Tampa Bay, made 27 saves.

MAPLE LEAFS 7, CAPITALS 3

TORONTO (AP) — William Nylander, Michael Bunting and Ilya Mikheyev each scored twice, Auston Matthews had two assists to reach 101 points and Toronto routed Washington.

Ilya Lyubushkin also scored and captain John Tavares had four assists to help the Maple Leafs improve to 48-20-6, a victory shy of the club record set in 2017-18.

Matthews — with 58 goals and 43 assists — became the third player in Toronto history with 100 or more points. Darryl Sittler had 117 in 1977-78, and Doug Gilmour had 127 in 1992-93 and 111 in 1993-94.

Nylander had his 29th and 30th goals. Mitch Marner also had an assist to hit the 60-assist mark for the second time in his career. Jack Campbell made 22 saves for Toronto.

John Carlson, Tom Wilson and Nic Dowd scored for Washington, which had won four in a row.

BLUES 6, SABRES 2

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Vladimir Tarasenko scored three times as part of a career-best five-point outing and St. Louis rolled to its seventh straight win.

Robert Thomas had five assists to extend his point streak to 11 games, during which he has six goals and 23 points. Pavel Buchnevich, Brandon Saad and David Perron also scored for the Blues. The winning streak is the Blues’ longest since an 8-0 run from Feb. 18 to March 3, 2020, and they improved to 9-0-1 in their past 10.

Tarasenko has scored game-winning goals in three straight outings to give him a career-best nine on the season. Jordan Binnington stopped 35 shots for his second straight win after four consecutive losses.

Alex Tuch and Rasmus Asplund scored, and Craig Anderson stopped 22 shots for Buffalo. Defenseman Owen Power set up Tuch’s goal for the 2021 No. 1 draft pick’s first NHL point in his second career game since leaving Michigan to sign with the Sabres.

RED WINGS 3, HURRICANES 0

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Alex Nedeljkovic had 46 saves in a sharp performance against his former team, getting his third shutout of the season and helping Detroit beat Carolina.

Moritz Seider, Adam Erne and Filip Zadina scored for Detroit. The Red Wings were recently eliminated from the postseason chase for the sixth straight year, but managed to push past the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes despite being outplayed much of the way.

Carolina finished with a 46-22 edge in shots on goal, including a long stretch of the second period played in the Detroit end of the ice. But Nedeljkovic stood up against every swarming push or breakaway by Carolina. Raanta finished with 19 saves for the Hurricanes.

SENATORS 3, BRUINS 2

BOSTON (AP) — Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Tim Stützle each scored a goal in the second period and Ottawa sent Boston to its first three-game losing streak this season.

Jesper Froden scored his first NHL goal for Boston, and Marc McLaughlin added his third, just six games into his NHL career. The Bruins had won eight of 10 before the skid.

The Senators wiped out a 2-0 deficit with the second-period goals for their second consecutive win. Anton Forsberg stopped 40 shots for the Senators.

Boston’s Jeremy Swayman allowed a goal on the first shot he faced and finished with 21 saves after starter Linus Ullmark left following one period with an undisclosed injury.