Bruins remain in East top spot picture
BOSTON: David Pastrnak and Tommy Wingels scored 51 seconds apart in the second period, and Boston beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Saturday night, preserving the Bruins’ chances for the No.1 play-off seed in the Eastern Conference.
Danton Heinen also scored for Boston, who added late goals by Noel Acciari and David Backes in the final two minutes to put away the Senators and complete the season sweep.
Anton Khudobin stopped 26 shots for the Bruins, who host Florida this morning (Thai time) in a game postponed by a winter storm on Jan 4. Boston trail Tampa Bay, who lost in overtime at Carolina, by one point for the top spot in the East and the Atlantic Division.
Ryan Dzingel scored both goals for Ottawa and Colin White had two assists. Daniel Taylor made 29 saves for the Senators, who finished 28-43-11 one year after reaching the Eastern Conference finals.
In Denver, Nathan MacKinnon scored his first goal in 10 games, Jonathan Bernier stopped 32 shots and Colorado beat St Louis 5-2 to earn the final play-off spot in the Western Conference.
Defencemen Samuel Girard and Tyson Barrie scored, while captain Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Nieto added emptynetters for the Avalanche, who won the West’s second wild card and head to the postseason for the first time since 2013-14. They will face top-seeded Nashville in the opening round a season after recording a league-low 48 points.
Game No.82 for these two boiled down to a winner-take-all scenario, though the Avalanche had to win in regulation.
Jaden Schwartz had a power-play goal and Brayden Schenn scored with 38.4 seconds remaining for the Blues, who saw their play-off appearance streak halted at six straight seasons.
Claude Giroux earned his first career hat-trick in the regular season as Philadelphia blanked the visiting New York 5-0 to clinch a play-off berth in their final regularseason game. Giroux finished with 34 goals and 102 points. He extended his career highs in points and goals while becoming the sixth player in franchise history to reach 100 points in a season.
Michael Raffl and Ivan Provorov also scored for the Flyers, who are returning to the play-offs after missing out last year, and will be vying for their third Stanley Cup. The club won back-to-back titles in 1973-74 and 1974-75.
Brian Elliott made 17 saves in his second game in goal after returning from a 25-game absence because of core muscle surgery on Feb 13. Henrik Lundqvist finished with 35 saves for the Rangers (34-39-9), who ended their regular season with their ninth loss in the last 11. Hours later, New York fired coach Alain Vigneault.
Elias Lindholm scored 49 seconds into overtime as Carolina edged Tampa Bay 3-2 to prevent the Lightning from clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Justin Williams had a goal and an assist, Jordan Staal scored a deflected goal and Phil Di Giuseppe had two assists for the Hurricanes. They had lost three straight and four of five down the stretch during their ninth straight season without making the play-offs — tied for the third-longest such drought in NHL history.
Ondrej Palat scored the tying goal with 8:49 minutes left and Ryan Callahan also scored for Tampa Bay. But with star Steven Stamkos out for a third straight game with an injury, the Lightning earned one point for going to OT but relinquished control of the Atlantic Division race to Boston.