LDN - Sports

NHL roundup: Blues blast Blackhawks

[April 07, 2018] Patrik Berglund's hat trick Friday night lifted the St. Louis Blues to a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center in Chicago, earning them a one-point lead over Colorado for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

St. Louis snapped a four-game losing streak with its 44th win of the season, giving it 94 points. The Blues close the season Saturday night in Colorado, where a win or an overtime/shootout loss will enable them to make their seventh straight playoff appearance. A regulation loss would eliminate St. Louis.

Berglund's tie-breaking goal came 16 seconds after Chicago's Erik Gustafsson had tied the score with his fifth goal of the season on a wrister from the left circle that beat Carter Hutton to the short side at 8:08 of the third period.

Berglund capped the second hat trick of his career with an empty-netter, his 17th marker of the season, at 18:49. He won a puck battle with Duncan Keith along the right boards and chipped a backhander from just inside the blue line that rolled just inside the right post.

Ducks 5, Stars 3

Jakob Silfverberg had a goal and two assists and Andrew Cogliano and Josh Manson each had a goal and an assist as Anaheim moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a victory over Dallas at the Honda Center.

Rickard Rakell and Derek Grant also scored goals and Ryan Getzlaf chipped in with a pair of assists for the Ducks (43-25-13, 99), who leapfrogged the idle Los Angeles Kings (45-28-8, 98) into third place in the battle for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. The San Jose Sharks remain one point ahead of the Ducks with one game remaining for each team.

Anaheim, which improved to 26-10-5 at home with its seventh straight win at the Honda Center, finishes the regular season on Saturday night at Arizona while the Kings host Dallas and the Sharks host Minnesota.

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Lightning 7, Sabres 5

Anthony Cirelli scored twice as host Tampa Bay rallied to defeat Buffalo as the Lightning played without star center Steven Stamkos (lower-body injury).

But Tampa Bay still had enough offense to move two points ahead of the idle Boston Bruins in the battle for the Atlantic Division title and the Eastern Conference's top seed. The Bruins (110 points) have two games remaining. Tampa Bay has one.

Cirelli's second goal tied the score 5-5 with 13:45 left in the third period. Brayden Point earned the game-winning goal less than a minute later with 12:58 left, and Victor Hedman added an insurance empty-netter with 1:26 remaining.

Penguins 4, Senators 0

Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel each collected one goal and one assist and goalie Casey DeSmith stopped 35 shots to record his first NHL shutout as Pittsburgh finished the regular season with a victory over visiting Ottawa.

DeSmith, the undrafted backup netminder, made his 11th career start one to remember on a night the Penguins collected many milestones beyond clinching the second spot in the Metropolitan Division and earning home-ice advantage for the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The two-time defending champion-Penguins reached the 100-point mark for the ninth time in the last 11 full 82-game seasons and head coach Mike Sullivan claimed his 200th victory. The Penguins set a franchise record with a 26.2 percent power-play rate, beating the mark set in 1995-96 by a team that boasted Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis.

--Field Level Media

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