LDN - Sports

NHL roundup: Predators lock up Presidents' Trophy

[April 06, 2018] Ryan Johansen scored with 5:27 left to give the Predators a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night in Washington, and Nashville clinched the Central Division and Western Conference titles.

The Predators, who made it to the Stanley Cup finals last year, locked up the Presidents' Trophy (most points in the league) later Thursday when the Boston Bruins lost to the Florida Panthers.

Nashville earned its 52nd victory of the season, a franchise record.

The game-winning play began when Viktor Arvidsson fired a shot from the left wing that Washington goalie Philipp Grubauer got a glove on. However, the puck then squirted loose in the crease, and Johansen tapped it into the net.

Devils 2, Maple Leafs 1

Keith Kinkaid continued his hot goaltending with 31 saves, and Patrick Maroon had two assists as New Jersey clinched its first Stanley Cup playoff berth since 2012 with the win over visiting Toronto.

Kinkaid improved to 16-3-1 since Feb. 13 as New Jersey won its fourth straight game and improved to 7-0-1 in its past eight contests.

Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha each scored for the Devils off nice assists by Maroon. Kinkaid improved to 10-1-1 in his past 12 games. William Nylander scored for the Maple Leafs.

Kings 5, Wild 4 (OT)

Dustin Brown's fourth goal of the night was the winner as Los Angeles claimed an overtime victory over visiting Minnesota.

Brown blasted a sharp-angled one-timer from the bottom of the left circle to beat Wild goalie Alex Stalock 23 seconds into the extra period for his 28th goal and 61st point of the season, a career high.

With the win, Los Angeles vaulted Anaheim for third place in the Pacific Division, though the Ducks have two games to play while the Kings have just one left. The Wild will finish third in the Central Division and face the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the playoffs.

Panthers 3, Bruins 2

Aleksander Barkov scored his 100th NHL goal and Jared McCann got the go-ahead score with 5:37 left in the third period as host Florida kept its slim playoff hopes alive with a win over Boston.

The Panthers would be eliminated if they fail to win either of their two remaining regular-season games or if the Philadelphia Flyers pick up at least one point on Saturday against the New York Rangers.

Barkov, an All-Star this year, scored his 27th goal of the season. However, it was a rough night for the Panthers as two of the three teams they were chasing for the final wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference clinched postseason berths -- the Devils and the Blue Jackets.

Sharks 4, Avalanche 2

Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi scored goals just over four minutes apart in the third period, lifting host San Jose to a win over Colorado.

The result enabled San Jose to tighten its grip on second place in the Pacific Division with 100 points, three ahead of Anaheim, which has a game in hand. The Sharks can wrap up home-ice advantage for the first round of the Western Conference with a win in their season finale Saturday night against the visiting Minnesota Wild.

Colorado stayed a point ahead of St. Louis for the final playoff spot in the West. The Avalanche would claim a postseason berth if they beat the Blues in their season finale in Denver on Saturday night.

Jets 2, Flames 1

Blake Wheeler and Paul Stastny each scored as Winnipeg beat visiting Calgary as Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 31 saves to tie Tom Barrasso for the most wins in a season by an American-born goaltender.

He earned his 43rd victory this season, equaling the number Barrasso collected in 1992-93 with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Wheeler tipped a Dustin Byfuglien slapper from the point past Flames goalie Jon Gillies for his 23rd goal and 90th point of the season. The last player in franchise history to reach the 90-point mark in a season was Ilya Kovalchuk in 2008-09, when the club was in Atlanta.

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Flyers 4, Hurricanes 3

Jake Voracek's goal late in the third period lifted Philadelphia past visiting Carolina on a night the Flyers could have clinched a playoff spot had Boston beaten Florida.

Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov and Michael Raffl also scored one goal each for the Flyers. Philadelphia goaltender Brian Elliott, who had been out just shy of two months after undergoing core muscle surgery, had 19 saves in his shaky return.

The Hurricanes got goals from Klas Dahlbeck, Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal.

Penguins 5, Blue Jackets 4 (OT)

Phil Kessel scored his second goal of the night 1:06 into overtime to send visiting Pittsburgh over Columbus, moving the Penguins one point ahead of Columbus and New Jersey for the second spot in the Metropolitan Division with one game remaining for each team.

Kessel increased his season goal tally to 33 and trails only Penguins leading scorer Evgeni Malkin.

Patric Hornqvist, Conor Sheary and Kris Letang also scored as Pittsburgh bounced back from a 3-1 loss to Washington on Sunday to win for the fourth time in six games.

Oilers 4, Golden Knights 3

Connor McDavid had three assists to increase his league-leading points total to 106, and Ty Rattie had a goal and an assist as Edmonton scored three unanswered third-period goals to pull out a win against visiting Vegas.

Michael Cammalleri, Matt Benning and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored goals for Edmonton, which snapped a five-game losing streak and won the regular-season series with the Golden Knights, 3-1.

Oscar Lindberg, Brandon Pirri and Brayden McNabb scored for Pacific Division champion Vegas, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. The Golden Knights once again rested regulars Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron, Nate Schmidt and Reilly Smith in preparation for next week's Stanley Cup playoffs.

Canucks 4, Coyotes 3 (OT)

Daniel Sedin's goal at 2:33 of overtime gave Vancouver a win over Arizona as he and his twin brother Henrik played the final home game of their NHL careers.

Daniel Sedin scored the 16th overtime goal of his career after taking a pass from Henrik. The goal was Daniel Sedin's league-record 10th overtime power-play goal. The tally culminated Vancouver's comeback from a 3-1, second-period deficit.

Jake Virtanen and Brendan Leipsic had Vancouver's other goals while Henrik Sedin and Alex Edler both furnished two assists. Christian Fischer, Dylan Strome and Derek Stepan scored for the Coyotes.

Canadiens 4, Red Wings 3

Nicolas Deslauriers scored two goals, Brendan Gallagher continued his scoring streak against Detroit as Montreal completed a sweep of the season series.

Deslauriers notched his first two-goal game since he tallied twice against Vancouver on Dec. 19.

Gallagher collected his sixth goal this season against the Wings and 31st overall. Gallagher scored in each of the four wins over Detroit.

Islanders 3, Rangers 2

Thomas Hickey and Anthony Beauvillier scored early in the second period for New York Islanders, who closed out their home schedule by edging the visiting New York Rangers.

The win was the second straight but just the fifth in the past 21 games (5-12-4) for the Islanders, who climbed out of the basement in the Metropolitan Division and are a point ahead of the Rangers with one game remaining for both clubs.

Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves for the Islanders, who swept the four-game season series from their rivals and have won the past seven games between the teams dating back to Dec. 6, 2016.

--Field Level Media

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