NEW YORK -- To borrow from an old advertising slogan: When Jack Capuano scolds someone publicly, the New York Islanders listen.

The Islanders moved to the edge of the playoffs on Monday night, when they responded to a rare rebuking from their head coach by scoring three times in a span of less than six minutes in the second period of a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Barclays Center.

Capuano has earned a reputation as a head coach who never uses a press conference forum to criticize players. But he deviated from the script at Monday morning's skate, when he said Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome all "need to pick their (expletive) up and start playing."

Capuano's comments came two days after a 5-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a defeat that dropped the Islanders to 5-6-2 since March 9, all but ended their chances of earning home ice in the first round of the playoffs and left them just three points ahead of the Boston Bruins, who are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

The 24-year-old Nelson, who has just six goals in his last 29 games, scored what proved to be the decisive goal in the second period, while the 26-year-old Bailey, who has only six points in his last 19 games, finished at a plus-one. Strome, 22, finished at a minus-one Monday to fall to a minus-12 rating for the season.

Nelson, at least, sounded as if the victory might not have soothed any hard feelings that arose Monday morning.

"You've got to be better, so I think our line was good today," Nelson said. "Nothing is fair. It is what it is. You go out and play."

As it turned out, Nelson, Bailey and Strome weren't the only ones Capuano targeted with his message.

"Listen, we can single out guys all we want," said Matt Martin, who scored the first of the second-period goals. "But we know all 12 forwards and six 'D,' we all gotta be better. Obviously they got the brunt of it tonight, but I think it was a message to everyone. We're not gonna kid ourselves in here. We all need to be better down the stretch. And today was a good start."

With the win, the Islanders (43-26-9) lowered their magic number for clinching a second straight playoff berth to two points. The Islanders, who are two points behind the New York Rangers for third place in the Metropolitan Division on Monday, can secure a spot with a win over the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.

"We've got guys in this room -- they're getting a little older, they want to take a run at obviously winning." Capuano said. "And we're going to need those young guys that are 21, 22, 23 years old, that think that they're going to be in the playoffs every year and they're going to have a chance to win a Stanley Cup."

The Islanders have not won a playoff series since 1993, the longest drought in the NHL.

"Well, it doesn't come around often," Capuano said. "So we just wanted to set the tone for those young guys to play a little bit better."

The Islanders' youngest player, 21-year-old defenseman Ryan Pulock, opened the scoring by collecting his second career goal with 6:42 left in the first period. Lightning center Alex Killorn tied the game 2:08 into the second, but Martin, Nelson and John Tavares scored within a span of 5:15. All three goals came at the end of coast-to-coast rushes by New York.

"We didn't think about our net tonight," Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. "What'd we give up, (three) breakaways in the second period?"

Victor Hedman scored with a little less than seven seconds left in the second period for the Lightning, but Johnny Boychuk's goal 4:28 into the third chased Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop and capped the scoring.

"I thought we were pretty good tonight, we were resilient," Capuano said. "Deserving two points for our guys."

Goalie Thomas Greiss made 32 saves for the Islanders.

The loss cost the Lightning (45-29-5) a chance to clinch a playoff berth and damaged their chances of winning the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay fell four points behind the Florida Panthers, who beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3. Both the Lightning and Panthers have three games remaining.

Bishop made 13 saves before being pulled. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 13 shots he faced in relief.

"This had nothing to do with Ben," Cooper said. "This had everything to do with the quality of chances we gave up."

NOTES: Lightning C Steven Stamkos underwent surgery Monday to repair a blood clot near his shoulder. He is expected to miss one to three months. ... In addition to Stamkos, the Lightning scratched D Slater Koekkoek, C Jonathan Marchessault and D Anton Stralman (fractured fibula). ... The Lightning became the last team to make its first visit to Barclays Center. ... The Islanders scratched G Jean-Francois Berube (undisclosed), C Mikhail Grabovski (concussion), G Jaroslav Halak (lower body) and RW Travis Hamonic (knee) as well as RW Steve Bernier, LW Eric Boulton and D Brian Strait. ... To replace Berube, the Islanders recalled G Christopher Gibson from Bridgeport of the AHL on an emergency basis. ... Islanders D Adam Pelech, who hasn't played since Jan. 14 due to an upper body injury, began a conditioning stint Monday at Bridgeport.