LDN - Sports

NHL roundup: Lightning lose, leave door open for Bruins

[April 09, 2018] Elias Lindholm scored 49 seconds into overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes prevented the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning from clinching first place in the Atlantic Division by winning 3-2 in the regular-season finale for both teams Saturday night.

By adding one point, Tampa Bay has 113 points, and the Boston Bruins have 112. But Boston will win the Atlantic Division title if it defeats the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.

The Hurricanes concluded the season with a 36-35-11 record, marking the ninth straight year they failed to qualify for the playoffs. That's the longest active drought in the NHL.

Jordan Staal and Justin Williams scored in regulation for Carolina. Teuvo Teravainen assisted on the winning goal for his 64th point of the season, one off the team-leading total held by Sebastian Aho.

Bruins 5, Senators 2

David Pastrnak scored his 34th goal and Boston held off visiting Ottawa to pull the Bruins within one point of the Lightning and give them a shot at finishing first in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.

Pastrnak pulled even with Brad Marchand for the Bruins' team lead in goals. Danton Heinen (16th goal), David Backes (13), Noel Acciari (10) and Tommy Wingels (nine) also lit the lamp as Boston ended its first three-game skid since mid-November.

Ryan Dzingel (23) scored two goals and Danny Taylor had 30 saves for the Senators, who ended their season with 10 losses in their final 12 games.

Avalanche 5, Blues 2

With the help of a controversial power-play goal in the second period, Colorado became the last team to qualify for the NHL playoffs, dumping St. Louis at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

Jonathan Bernier stopped 32 shots for Colorado, which finished with 95 points, one more than St. Louis. The Avalanche, who managed an NHL-worst 48 points last season, will travel to defending Western Conference champion Nashville for the first round of the playoffs next week.

It was a bitter and unexpected early end to the season for the Blues, who missed the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons. They played most of the game without leading goal-scorer Vladimir Tarasenko, who left the contest in the first period with an upper-body injury and didn't return. St. Louis also appeared to get the short end on its challenge for offsides before Tyson Barrie's man-advantage marker at 6:11 of the second period. Replay showed the puck barely crossing the blue line into the neutral zone as Barrie walked the line while quarterbacking the power play.

Flyers 5, Rangers 0

Claude Giroux scored three goals to lift Philadelphia past visiting New York and into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Ivan Provorov and Michael Raffl each scored for the Flyers, who officially clinched a playoff berth following the victory. Sean Couturier had a pair of assists for the Flyers.

Philadelphia goaltender Brian Elliott stopped 17 shots in the shutout. Giroux registered the hat trick with 9:49 remaining in the third period and hats were tossed down all over the ice to celebrate the accomplishment. It was Giroux's 34th goal of the season.

Ducks 3, Coyotes 0

Centers Rickard Rakell, Adam Henrique and Hampus Lindholm scored and goaltender Ryan Miller posted his fourth shutout of the season as Anaheim clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a shut out of host Arizona.

Rakell has a career-high 34 goals, Henrique has 24 and the Ducks (44-25-13) will be the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division. They will face the San Jose Sharks in Round 1.

The Ducks are 10-1-1 in their last 12 games and 17-5-2 in their last 24. They vaulted over the Los Angeles Kings into third place in the division by beating Dallas on Friday. They won three of four against the Coyotes this season.

Wild 6, Sharks 3

Jason Zucker scored two goals to cap a three-goal outburst in a 4:06 span of the second period as Minnesota tuned up for the playoffs by doubling up host San Jose.

Jonas Brodin, Matt Cullen and Mikael Granlund also tallied for Minnesota, which finished the regular season with 101 points and travel to Winnipeg to open a first-round Western Conference playoff series next week.

Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski lit the lamp for the Sharks, who missed a chance to attain home-ice advantage for their first-round series with Anaheim.

Stars 4, Kings 2

Jamie Benn collected his second hat trick of the week to lead visiting Dallas past Los Angeles.

While the victory for the Stars meant finishing the season on a positive note despite missing the playoffs, the loss keeps the Kings in a wild-card spot, and they will face the Pacific Division-champion Vegas Golden Knights in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Benn's natural hat trick marker came at 13:57 and made it a 4-0 lead. Off a rush, Benn raced through the slot and redirected a perfectly executed pass from Alex Radulov for his 36th goal of the season. Benn finished the season with seven goals in the last three games and a five-game point-scoring streak in which he collected eight goals and 10 points.

Oilers 3, Canucks 2 (SO)

Leon Draisaitl had the decisive shootout goal and also lit the lamp in regulation to help Edmonton beat visiting Vancouver.

Draisaitl's shootout tally came in the fourth round after Jussi Jokinen scored on the other end to keep the Canucks alive momentarily. Alexander Edler missed his shootout attempt to seal the Oilers' victory.

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Brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin each played their final NHL game after 17 seasons apiece with Vancouver. Daniel scored in the opening round of the shootout, but Henrik's attempt in the second round was off target.

Jets 4, Blackhawks 1

Andrew Copp scored two goals and Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves to pick up his record 44th win of the season to lead Winnipeg past visiting Chicago.

Both teams wore jerseys with "Broncos" on the top of the back instead of their last names to honor the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team that was involved in a bus crash with a tractor-trailer en route to a playoff in Saskatchewan on Friday night that killed at least 15 members, including the team's head coach and captain, and hospitalized 14 more. Players from both teams also formed a circle at center ice for a moment of silence and the national anthems.

Hellebuyck (44-11-9) broke Tom Barrasso's record for most wins by an American-born goaltender set in the 1992-93 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Jets, an NHL-best 15-3-1 since March 1, also extended their franchise record with their ninth straight home win while also improving to 32-7-2 at home this season.

Capitals 5, Devils 3

Alex Ovechkin scored two goals, including the game-winner in the third period, as Metropolitan Division champion Washington beat visiting New Jersey.

Ovechkin needed three goals to reach 50 this season but finished with 49, first in the NHL by five over Winnipeg's Patrik Laine.

His second goal, where he intercepted a failed clearing pass and quickly scored from the right circle with 14:49 left in the game, gave Washington the lead for good at 4-3.

Flames 7, Golden Knights 1

Rookie center Mark Jankowski scored four goals and Johnny Gaudreau added a goal and an assist as Calgary ended its season with a rout of Vegas.

Garnet Hathaway and Spencer Foo also scored goals and Nick Shore and Troy Brouwer each had two assists for Calgary, which won for just the second time in its final 11 games. The Flames had scored just 13 goals in their previous 10 games and tied their season-high with seven goals in a game.

Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury, playing for the first time since a 3-2 win over San Jose on March 31 while resting up for the playoffs, stopped just 12 of the 18 shots he faced before getting pulled after the second period in favor of Malcolm Subban. Subban finished with 12 saves.

Predators 4, Blue Jackets 2

Filip Forsberg recorded his fifth career hat trick as regular-season champion Nashville tuned up for the playoffs by beating visiting Columbus.

The Panthers, who claimed the Presidents' Trophy with 117 points, staked themselves to a 3-0 first-period lead, starting with Austin Watson's tally at the 7:52 mark. After Blue Jackets forward Matt Calvert lost an edge at his blue line, Mike Fisher grabbed the loose puck and entered the zone before making a drop pass to Watson, who ripped a top-corner shot from the right face-off dot over the shoulder of Blue Jackets goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.

Forsberg doubled the lead with the first of consecutive power-play goals. He was alone in the slot and set up by Scott Hartnell to bury his first of the night at 11:04 of the opening frame.

Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 2

Auston Matthews collected one goal and one assist and goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 31 shots as Toronto geared up for the playoffs by beating visiting Montreal.

The Maple Leafs set a franchise record with a 105-point season and completed a four-game sweep of their Original Six rival while Andersen set a franchise record for most wins by a Toronto goalie with 38.

Matthews opened the scoring at Air Canada Centre with a power-play goal coming with 1:55 remaining in the opening period. He was in the left circle when William Nylander made a brilliant no-look, cross-ice pass that left Matthews all kinds of net to hit behind Canadiens goalie Carey Price for his 34th goal in 62 games this season.

Panthers 4, Sabres 3

Florida was eliminated from playoff contention before it even took the ice against visiting Buffalo, but still fought to the win.

The Panthers was ruled out mathematically when Philadelphia defeated the New York Rangers earlier Saturday, clinching a playoff berth for the Flyers.

Backup goalie James Reimer (38 saves) earned the win as starter Roberto Luongo rested. On Thursday, Luongo became just the third NHL goalie to play 1,000 games.

Islanders 4, Red Wings 3 (OT)

John Tavares scored at the 3:16 mark of overtime to give visiting New York the win over Detroit in the season finale for both teams.

Tavares picked up a loose puck near his own blue line, threaded through defenders and beat Wings goaltender Jared Coreau for his 37th goal. Ryan Pulock scored a power-play goal in the final minute of regulation to allow the Islanders to force overtime.

Anders Lee scored his 40th goal and Andrew Ladd had the other Islanders tally. Mathew Barzal had two assists to lift his season total to 63, while Thomas Greiss stopped 36 shots for New York. Henrik Zetterberg, Justin Abdelkader and Dylan Larkin had the Wings' goals.

--Field Level Media

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