UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Left winger Nikolay Kulemin scored just beyond the midway point of the third period Saturday afternoon as the New York Islanders staved off elimination -- and the closing of Nassau Coliseum -- by beating the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

A decisive Game 7 will be played at Washington's Verizon Center on Monday. The winner will face the New York Rangers in the conference semifinals.

The Islanders haven't won a playoff series since 1993 and will begin play in Brooklyn's Barclays Center in the fall. But Kulemin's goal kept hope for the Islanders that they can end their drought and extend their stay on Long Island.

Kulemin's goal was set up when a scrum broke out for the puck along the benches. Islanders center John Tavares managed to field the puck and went in alone against left winger Alex Ovechkin and defenseman Karl Alzner. His shot was turned back and Tavares was leveled into the boards by Ovechkin and Alzner, but Kulemin picked up the rebound and beat Holtby with 9:27 remaining.

The Capitals nearly tied it with 5:33 left, but center Jay Beagle's rebound bounced off the crossbar and into the goalmouth, where it was cleared.

Right winger Cal Clutterbuck scored an empty-netter with 52.6 seconds left. Tavares scored in the first period. Goalie Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves.

Defenseman John Carlson scored in the first for the Capitals. Holtby made 35 saves.

The Islanders energized the sellout crowd 6:56 into the first, when Tavares scored his first goal since his overtime winner in Game 3. With Carlson right in front of him, Tavares managed to get his shot past Carlson's stick and past Holtby, who was screened by Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom and Islanders center Brock Nelson.

The Capitals' third power play in the final seven minutes of the first proved to be the charm when Carlson fielded the rebound of a shot by Ovechkin and fired the puck through several players in front of Halak with 4.3 seconds left.

The Islanders outshot the Capitals 17-10 in a scoreless second and had two fluky chances to take the lead early in the period. First, a slap shot by defenseman Johnny Boychuk bounced into the goalmouth, but Carlson swiped it away. Seconds later, a slap shot by center Mikhail Grabovski bounced off Holtby's chest, fell behind him and trickled to the left of the post.

NOTES: The Islanders scratched 13 players, including D Travis Hamonic, who hasn't played since being injured on April 10, and D Lubomir Visnovsky, who took a shot to the head from Capitals RW Tom Wilson in Game 4 on Tuesday. ... Since the Islanders' last series victory in 1993, the only other teams from the four major pro sports to not win a series or round are baseball's Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos and football's Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions. ... The Capitals scratched C Eric Fehr, who missed his third straight game because of an upper body injury, as well as LW Curtis Glencross and G Justin Peters. ... Of the Capitals' nine previous playoff series since 2008, seven went seven games.