BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Anthony Stolarz stopped 35 shots for his third consecutive shutout in Buffalo, and the Toronto Maple Leafs clinched their first Atlantic Division title with a 4-0 win over the Sabres on Tuesday night.
Steven Lorentz scored the go-ahead goal on a one-timer with 5:45 left in the second period. Mitch Marner set a career-high with 100 points by scoring with 4:21 left in regulation, Auston Matthews’ empty-net goal was the 400th in his career and Nicholas Robertson also scored.
The Leafs secured the Eastern Conference’s second seed, and will open the playoffs against Ontario provincial rival Ottawa.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:
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DEVILS 5 BRUINS 4 (OT)
BOSTON (AP) — Brian Dumoulin scored 90 seconds into overtime to lead New Jersey past Boston and end the Bruins’ first season without a playoff berth since 2016.
Timo Meier had a goal and two assists, and Jake Allen made 20 saves for the Devils, who had already clinched a post-season matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes. Dawson Mercer had a goal and an assist for New Jersey.
David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist for Boston and led the team with 106 points — his third straight 100-point season. Jeremy Swayman stopped 21 shots for the Bruins, who finished with the worst record in the Atlantic Division — and perhaps the Eastern Conference.
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BLUE JACKETS 3 FLYERS 0
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jet Greaves made 29 saves for his second shutout in his past three games, Dante Fabbro, Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli each scored a goal and Columbus beat Philadelphia.
Greaves continued to backstop the Blue Jackets to their fifth straight win and an unexpected late-season push for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Fabbro broke a scoreless tie with a one-timer from the top of the right circle, 2:32 into the second period.
Johnson scored his 24th goal of the season on the power play later in the second period and Fantilli scored his fifth goal in the past three games in the third period for his first career 30-goal season.
Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan each had a pair of assists for the Blue Jackets. With those assists, Werenski reached 80 points in a season for the first time in his career.
Sam Ersson made 31 saves for the Flyers.
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BLACKHAWKS 4 SENATORS 3 (OT)
OTTAWA, Ont. (AP) — Frank Nazar scored 48 seconds into overtime to give Chicago a victory over Ottawa in their season finale.
The Blackhawks (25-46-11) missed the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
With an eye toward the playoffs, the Senators (44-30-7) rested players for the second straight game. Claude Giroux, Nick Jensen and Jake Sanderson got the night off. Brady Tkachuk missed his eighth straight game with an upper-body injury.
Thomas Chabot made it 2-all with a power-play goal at 1:19 of the second. Connor Bedard put Chicago back in front with his second goal of the game and 23rd of the season on the power play. The Blackhawks had three goals on five shots against Anton Forsberg, who made 12 saves.
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LIGHTNING 5 PANTHERS 1
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point had a goal and two assists to lead Tampa Bay to a victory against Florida.
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assists and Yanni Gourde added two assists. Conor Geekie, Jake Guentzel and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 shots.
Brad Marchand scored for Florida, which finished its regular season schedule. Vitek Vanecek finished with 26 saves.
The teams will meet in the opening round of the playoffs starting this weekend.
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CAPITALS 3 ISLANDERS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — Dylan Strome scored three times, and Washington beat New York.
It was Strome’s third career hat trick. Charlie Lindgren made 33 saves for Washington, which had dropped two in a row.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for New York in the third period, and Ilya Sorokin stopped 33 shots.
The Islanders have dropped four of five going into their season finale at Columbus on Thursday night. They will miss the playoffs for the second time in four seasons.
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BLUES 6 UTAH 1
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis secured the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference playoffs with a victory over Utah.
Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and two assists, Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Jimmy Snuggerud, Brayden Schenn and Zack Bolduc each added a goal and an assist for the Blues. Robert Thomas contributed a pair of assists and Jordan Binnington made 22 saves for St. Louis, which will face the conference-leading Winnipeg Jets in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Blues were eight points out of a playoff spot at the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament and used a 19-4-3 run to qualify for the post-season for the first time 2022.
Clayton Keller scored his 30th goal of the season and Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves for Utah.
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WILD 3 DUCKS 2 (OT)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota clinched a spot in the playoffs in dramatic fashion when Joel Eriksson Ek scored the tying goal with 20.9 seconds left in regulation, and Matt Boldy got the winner with 17.9 seconds remaining in overtime to beat Anaheim.
The crowd erupted again when the Wild sent retiring goalie Marc-Andre Fleury out for overtime. Fleury made five saves, fending off a 4-on-3 power play.
With an empty net for the extra attacker, Boldy’s pass across the slot set up Eriksson Ek at the edge of the crease. Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal stopped his first try with his stick, but a second whack at the puck got it across the line for his 14th goal of the season.
Rookie Sam Colangelo had the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, Alex Killorn scored and Dostal stopped 37 shots for the Ducks (35-37-9), who were eliminated 11 days ago from post-season contention.
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FLAMES 5 GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4 (SO)
CALGARY, Alta. (AP) — Morgan Frost scored in regulation and the shootout, helping Calgary beat Vegas after the Flames were eliminated from the playoff race.
Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund and Adam Klapka also scored as Calgary extended its point streak to seven games. Rookie Dustin Wolf made 38 saves in regulation and overtime in his eighth straight start.
The Flames (40-27-14) were in the mix for a Western Conference wild card coming into the day. But they were eliminated when both the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues won. They missed out on the post-season for a third consecutive year.
Vegas is going to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons. It will play Minnesota in the first round.
Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots for Vegas through overtime.
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KINGS 6 KRAKEN 5
SEATTLE (AP) — Samuel Helenius scored twice, David Rittich made 28 saves, and Los Angeles spoiled Seattle’s home finale with a victory.
The Kings head into their regular-season finale locked into a first-round playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers. After the Kings blew a 2-0 first-period cushion, they responded with four unanswered goals over a five-plus minute stretch of game time between the second and third periods.
Warren Foegele gave the lead back to Los Angeles with 3:55 to play in the second and Alex Laferriere made it 4-2 just 72 seconds later. Adrian Kempe and Helenius added third-period goals to make it 6-2.
Seattle nearly came back in the third period with three straight goals from Jaden Schwartz, Matty Beniers and Eeli Tolvanen, but the deficit was too much.
Seattle goalie Joey Daccord had 18 saves.
The Associated Press
