Alex Ovechkin scored on a laser of a shot off a faceoff, Logan Thompson made some spectacular saves among his 28 and the Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 in Game 5 of their first-round series Wednesday night to advance in the NHL playoffs.

It’s the Capitals’ first series win since capturing the Stanley Cup in 2018, and they clinched at home for the first time since 2015. They face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round.

Ovechkin led the way with his power-play goal 11 minutes in, setting off chants of “Ovi! Ovi!” from the juiced up crowd. Pierre-Luc Dubois delivered a perfect pass to Jakob Chychrun, who beat Jakub Dobes just over two minutes later. Tom Wilson provided a valuable insurance goal late in the second period.

Fans expressed their appreciation for Thompson with chants of “LT! LT!” when he turned aside Kaiden Guhle on a 3-on-1 rush and with under two minutes left when he flashed his glove to rob Nick Suzuki with Dobes pulled for an extra attacker. Brandon Duhaime sealed it with an empty-netter with 25.6 seconds left.

Panthers 6, Lightning 3: Eetu Luostarinen had a goal and three assists to lead Florida to a Game 5 victory at Tampa Bay and advance the Panthers to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Carter Verhaeghe, Anton Lundell, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves as the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers defeated their in-state rival in five games in the first round for the second consecutive season.

Panthers will play the winner of the series between the Maple Leafs and Senators, which Toronto leads 3-2.

Nick Paul, Gage Goncalves and Jake Guentzel scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 25 saves. Since advancing to three consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances from 2020-2022, the Lightning have lost in the first round for the past three seasons. Tampa Bay fell to 1-9 in the past 10 home playoff games.

Bennett scored with 4:47 left in the second period just six seconds after he came out of the penalty box, finishing off a 2-on-1 chance and beating Vasilevskiy to the far post on the stick side to lift the Panthers to a 4-3 lead.

Tampa Bay scored the opening goal for the first time in the series when Goncalves scored 2:33 into the game. But Florida answered with a power-play goal from Verhaeghe at 5:21 and Lundell redirected a Brad Marchand pass at 10:06.

Paul pulled the Lightning even at 12:16 of the first with his second goal of the series.

Barkov tipped a Gustav Forsling shot 52 seconds into the second to put Florida back in front before Guentzel tallied.

Jets 5, Blues 3: Kyle Connor had a goal and two assists and Winnpeg beat St. Louis to take a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference series.

The teams play Game 6 on Friday in St. Louis, where the Blues won the two previous games while extending their home record to 14 consecutive victories.

The Jets were without star center Mark Scheifele after the first period after he was crushed into the boards by Brayden Schenn early in the opening period.

Vladislav Namestnikov, who replaced Scheifele on the top line, had a goal and an assist. Nino Niederreiter also had a goal and assist. Dylan DeMelo and Adam Lowry had goals while Mason Appleton had three assists.

Connor Hellebuyck made 16 saves for Winnipeg.

Nathan Walker scored twice and rookie Jimmy Snuggerud also had a goal for the Blues.