< Noel Acciari and the Boston Bruins can win the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed in the NHL playoffs with a win over Panthers today.
David Pastrnak and Tommy Wingels scored 51 seconds apart in the second period, and Boston beat Ottawa, preserving the Bruins’ chances for the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Danton Heinen also scored for Boston, which 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 on Sunday night in a game postponed by a winter storm Jan. 4. Boston trails Tampa Bay, which 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. After falling behind 1-0 on Dzingel’s goal 12:31 into the game, Boston tied it on Pastrnak’s power-play goal 8:08 into the second period. The tie lasted less than a minute before Wingels fired a wrist shot that Taylor got his glove on but couldn’t hold and the puck bounced over the goal line at 8:59 of the second. Heinen made a steal at the Boston blue line and took it the other way, beating Taylor on a wrist shot with 2:59 left in the second. Dzingel pulled Ottawa to 3-2 at 7:07 of the third with his second goal of the game, but Acciari added an insurance goal for Boston with 1:51 left and David Backes scored on an empty net with 43 seconds left to play.