PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin put on a show in the regular-season finale on Thursday night, showcasing their greatness in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals.
Ovechkin finished his record-breaking season by netting his 897th career goal in the second period. Crosby, meanwhile, finished his 20th season in the NHL with a goal and an assist to push him past the 90-point barrier for the ninth time.
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The Capitals begin the quest for the franchise’s second Stanley Cup on Monday against the Montreal Canadiens.
The 73rd regular-season meeting between two of the game’s biggest stars was the rare one without stakes. The Capitals clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs weeks ago. The rebuilding Penguins missed the postseason.
Bryan Rust scored twice to finish the season with a career-best 31 goals. His second goal came on a ridiculous whip-around backhand feed from Crosby that gave Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 18 shots for the Penguins.
Ovechkin’s 44th goal of the season moved him three clear of Wayne Gretzky, whose career record Ovechkin smashed earlier this month. Clay Stevenson made 33 saves in his NHL debut.
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RANGERS 4, LIGHTNING 0
NEW YORK (AP) — Mika Zibanejad scored twice and Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves as New York beat Tampa Bay.
Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider also scored for the Rangers, who missed the playoffs a year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best team.
The Lightning host the defending-champion Florida Panthers in the first game of a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Tuesday.
Trocheck scored his 26th goal this season — his sixth short-handed — at 1:02 of the middle period. The Rangers lead the NHL with 18 short-handed goals this season.
Kreider scored at 4:02 of the third to make it 2-0 then Zibanejad scored at 12:50 and 16:24.
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The shutout was the sixth this season for Shesterkin, who finished with a career-worst 27-29-5 mark.
The playoff-bound Lightning finished with 47 wins and 102 points.
Lightning netminder Jonas Johansson made 19 saves.
SABRES 5, FLERYS 4
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Ryan McLeod scored a goal and added two assists, and Lindy Ruff became the NHL’s fifth coach to reach 900 wins in Buffalo’s victory over Philadelphia.
Alex Tuch, JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn had a goal and assist each, and Peyton Krebs scored a short-handed goal for Buffalo. James Reimer made 21 saves for his eighth win in 10 starts to finish the season 10-10-2.
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Ruff joined Florida’s Paul Maurice (916 wins) as the NHL’s only active coaches with 900 or more wins. In his second stint coaching the Sabres, Ruff ranks second with 607 victories with one team, behind only Al Arbour, who had 740 with the Islanders.
Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov snapped a six-game goal drought by scoring twice and Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink had a goal and assist. Rookie Aleksei Kolosov stopped 26 shots, and the loss secured Philadelphia finishing last in the Eastern Conference standings for the second time in team history.
After nearly blowing a 4-1 second-period lead, McLeod sealed the win with an empty-netter with 48 seconds left in a game the Sabres never trailed.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, RED WINGS 3, OT
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TORONTO (AP) — Scott Laughton scored 56 seconds into overtime and Toronto beat Detroit.
Auston Matthews, Philippe Myers and Chris Tanev — with 1.8 seconds left in regulation —also scored for Toronto (52-26-4). Joseph Woll stopped 30 shots, and Mitch Marner had two assists.
The Maple Leafs won the Atlantic Division and will host the Ottawa Senators in Game 1 on Sunday.
Justin Holl had a goal and an assist against his former team and Austin Watson and Alex DeBrincat also scored for Detroit (39-35-8). Cam Talbot made 16 saves.
BLUE JACKETS 6, ISLANDERS 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cole Sillinger and Zach Werenski each had a goal and an assist and Columbus routed New York.
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A season that began with heartache over the death of Johnny Gaudreau left the Blue Jackets in the most unlikely of positions. A preseason pick to finish 31st in the NHL, they instead battled through all 82 games for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot that went to Montreal with the Canadiens’ win over Carolina on Wednesday.
Columbus ended the season with 89 points, good for fourth in the Metropolitan Division.
Dante Fabbro, Dmitri Voronkov, Sean Kuraly and Adam Fantilli also scored for the Blue Jackets (40-33-9), who won six straight to end the season and tied a franchise record with 57 home points. Jet Greaves stopped 36 shots and was 5:12 from his third straight shutout.
Hudson Fasching scored and Marcus Hogberg made 19 saves for the Islanders (35-35-12). They finished with 82 points, good for sixth in the Metro.
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SENATORS 7, HURRICANES 5
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Drake Batherson scored the tying and go-ahead goals in the third period and Ottawa tuned up for the playoffs with a victory over Carolina.
Brady Tkachuk returned to Ottawa’s lineup after missing eight games because of an upper-body injury, then took a stick to the face with about five minutes left in the second period and didn’t return.
Adam Gaudette also scored twice for Ottawa. Dylan Cousins, Shane Pinto and Tim Stutzle added goals, and Linus Ullmark made 28 saves. Ottawa will open playoffs at Toronto on Sunday.
Skyler Brind’Amour, the son of Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour scored his first NHL goal, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Andrei Svechnikov, Jack Roslovic and Tyson Jost also scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina will open the postseason Sunday at home against New Jersey.