Empty-net winner seals Caps’ playoff bid
T.J. Oshie scored the winning goal into an empty net with three minutes remaining as the visiting Washington Capitals clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Trailing the Capitals by two points, the Flyers needed to win in regulation to keep their playoff chances alive, so Philadelphia coach John Tortorella pulled goalie Samuel Ersson with 3:10 remaining in a 1-1 game. Seconds later, Oshie skated in along the right boards and shot into the empty net.
The Capitals (40-31-11, 91 points) completed the regular season with a third consecutive win to seal their playoff berth. They missed the postseason in 2022-23 after a streak of eight straight playoff campaigns. Washington has made the playoffs in 15 of the past 17 seasons.
Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals, and Charlie Lindgren made 27 saves.
Erik Johnson scored for the Flyers (38-33-11, 87 points) who had won two straight after an 0-6-2 stretch. Ersson made 16 saves.
The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 in a shootout on Tuesday to finish tied with the Capitals in points, but Washington won the regulation-wins tiebreaker 32-27.
Panthers 5, Maple Leafs 2
Florida – thanks to one of the more dominant periods in the NHL this season – rallied to defeat visiting Toronto in Sunrise, Fla.
Florida (52-24-6, 110 points) jumped the Boston Bruins in the standings to win the Atlantic Division title. The Bruins lost to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
That means Florida’s first-round playoff matchup will be against the Tampa Bay Lightning, winners of the first wild card. Third-place Toronto (4625-10, 102 points) will play Boston.
The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who is trying to become just the ninth 70-goal scorer in NHL history, did not score. He is expected to get one more shot on Wednesday when Toronto plays its regular-season finale at Tampa Bay.
On Tuesday, Matthews had several near scores before his eight-game goal streak was snapped.
Florida, which trailed 2-0 after the first period, scored four times in the second, putting 29 shots on goal. Toronto, meanwhile, had just four shots on goal in the period.
Canucks 4, Flames 1
Thatcher Demko was superb in his return from a 14-game absence, making 39 saves as Vancouver clinched the Pacific Division title with a convincing win over visiting Calgary.
Tuesday marked the final home game of the regular season for the Canucks (50-22-9, 109 points), who needed just one point to be crowned division champs for the first time in 11 years. Vancouver won the Northwest Division back in 2013.
Demko had not played since March 9 due to a knee injury.
Tyler Myers had a goal and an assist while Dakota Joshua, J.T. Miller and Nils Hoglander also scored for the playoffbound Canucks, who won 50 games in a single season for the first time since 2011-12.
Vancouver was able to cool off a Flames offense that had averaged four goals over its previous four games. But on Tuesday, Brayden Pachal had the only marker for Calgary (37-39-5, 79 points), while goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves.
Jets 4, Kraken 3
Kyle Connor scored twice as Winnipeg won its seventh game in a row, defeating visiting Seattle.
The victory guaranteed the Jets (5124-6, 108 points) home-ice advantage in their first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche (49-25-7, 105 points).
Jets forwards Tyler Toffoli and Nikolaj Ehlers both had a goal and an assist, while Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk each had two assists. Connor Hellebuyck made 20 saves for the win.
Yanni Gourde had a goal and an assist for Seattle (33-35-13, 79 points). Tomas Tatar and Tye Kartye also scored, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 20 shots.
The score was 3-3 before Winnipeg got the winner just past the midway point of the third period.
On a power play, Toffoli reeled in a pass from Ehlers, stickhandled in the slot and scored on a backhand attempt to put Winnipeg ahead for good with 8:20 remaining.
Red Wings 5, Canadiens 4, SO
Patrick Kane scored the only goal of the shootout as visiting Detroit closed out its season with a win over Montreal.
The Red Wings were officially eliminated from playoff contention moments earlier by virtue of Washington’s victory over Philadelphia. The Capitals won the tiebreaker for the final wild-card berth over Detroit by virtue of more regulation victories.
The Red Wings (41-32-9, 91 points) failed to reach the postseason for the eighth consecutive season.
Detroit’s David Perron scored with fewer than five seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime. Moritz Seider, Joe Veleno and Daniel Sprong scored the other goals for the Red Wings, while James Reimer made 29 saves in the win.
Juraj Slafkovsky had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens (30-36-16, 76 points). Alex Newhook, Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield also scored, while Cayden Primeau stopped 36 shots.
Montreal took the lead at 11:32 of the first period.
Newhook scored his 15th goal off a
Gallagher feed during a two-on-one rush.
Senators 3, Bruins 1
Jiri Smejkal and Jakob Chychrun scored first-period goals to propel visiting Senators over Boston.
Ottawa (37-41-4, 78 points) posted its third win in four games to end the season.
Smejkal collected his first NHL goal while Anton Zub also scored for the Senators. Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg was a rock, making a whopping 22 of his 34 saves in the third period.
An assist on Chychrun’s goal gave Brady Tkachuk his 349th point with the Senators, moving him past Mike Fisher for ninth on the franchise’s all-time list.
Boston (47-20-15, 109 points) got a third-period goal from Pavel Zacha but lost control of its own destiny in the Atlantic Division title race following a second defeat in as many games.
Linus Ullmark made 17 saves for Boston, which closed the regular season by losing three of the final four games.
Golden Knights 3, Blackhawks 1
Logan Thompson made 22 saves as Vegas moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a victory over Chicago in Las Vegas.
Brayden McNabb, Michael Amadio and Nicolas Roy scored for Vegas (4528-8, 98 points), which moved move one point ahead of the idle Los Angeles Kings (43-27-11, 97 points) into third with one game remaining for both teams.
Vegas finishes the regular season on Thursday against the visiting Anaheim Ducks, while Los Angeles hosts Chicago on Thursday. The Kings, who were idle on Tuesday while dropping into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, hold the regulation-wins tiebreaker.
The Golden Knights posted their third win in a row.
Jason Dickinson scored for Chicago, which took its fifth straight loss. Petr Mrazek stopped 34 of 36 shots for the Blackhawks, who fell to an NHL-worst 7-32-1 on the road.
Blue Jackets 6, Hurricanes 3
Zach Werenski scored twice and added two assists as Columbus doubled up visiting Carolina.
Luca Del Bel Belluz, James Malatesta, Johnny Gaudreau and Alex Nylander also scored for the Blue Jackets (27-4312, 66 points), who wrapped up their season by snapping a four-game losing streak. Mathieu Olivier and Erik Gudbranson each added two assists and Jet Greaves made 38 saves.
Teuvo Teravainen scored twice and Jesperi Kotkaniemi added the other goal for Carolina (52-23-7, 111 points), who were resting many regulars with their playoff fate already determined. Brent Burns and Stefan Nosen had two assists apiece in the loss.