Saturday's hockey: Caps move into third in Metropolitan; Wings two points behind Flyers
Washington — Hampus Lindholm watched helplessly from the penalty box as his Boston Bruins teammates killed off his four-minute double minor for high sticking in overtime and marveled at how they got the job done from goaltender Jeremy Swayman on out.
They were just paying Lindholm back.
Lindholm scored a goal at one end, prevented one at the other and Boston beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night in a potential first-round playoff preview. The defenseman from Sweden got just his second goal of the season but arguably more importantly dived in the crease to stop the puck from going in the net in the opening minute.
“I owe him a couple Swedish fikas," Swayman said, referring to the Scandinavian country's popular coffee break pastry. “I was pretty fired up when that happened, and it obviously saved a goal and that’s two points.”
Kevin Shattenkirk scored the shootout winner, rookie John Beecher had a goal and Swayman made 18 saves in regulation and overtime for the Bruins, who were playing for the first time since clinching their eighth consecutive postseason appearance.
With the victory after surviving the lengthy penalty kill, they leapfrogged the Florida Panthers to move back into first place in the Atlantic Division and kept pace with the New York Rangers for the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
“We had our moments there where we losing a lot of these games a couple months ago going into overtimes and either losing there or losing in shootouts,” said Shattenkirk, who has been in and out of the lineup and was chosen by goaltending coach Bob Essensa to go fifth in the shootout. “It’s great to see us turn the corner and, obviously, taking strides there.”
The Capitals hope to join Boston in the playoffs, but that’ll depend on how they play their final eight games and what happens with Detroit and Philadelphia, the other teams vying for the final two spots in the Eastern Conference. By picking up a point, they moved ahead of the Flyers, who lost Saturday night, for third place in the Metropolitan Division because they've played fewer games and went two up on the Red Wings, who lost in a shootout at Florida earlier Saturday.
“We’re just really mission-focused right now instead of destination-focused right now,” said goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who stopped 27 of the 29 shots he faced. “We’re worrying about the product that we’re putting on the ice. The other teams, they have to worry about themselves. We’re going to worry about ourselves in here.”
John Carlson became just the ninth defenseman to score a goal in his 1,000th NHL game, Michael Sgarbossa also had a goal, validating coach Spencer Carbery’s decision to keep him in the lineup when Sonny Milano returned from an injury absence.
"It would’ve been nice to win, but it showed a lot of guts from us tonight," Carlson said. “You bear down in every game, in every situation, and we showed some poise. It wasn’t perfect tonight, but we showed some poise coming back and battling in it until the end and giving ourselves a chance to win.”
More Saturday games
Vegas 2, (at) Minnesota 1 (OT): Jonathan Marchessault scored into an empty net 3:30 into overtime to give Vegas a victory over Minnesota.
Minnesota, desperate to make up ground in the fight for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, pulled goalie Filip Gustavsson about three minutes into the extra period. But Vegas gained control of the puck, and Marchessault fired a shot from near his own blue line that found the back of the net for his 40th goal of the season.
As a result, Vegas earned two points and Minnesota zero, thanks to a rule that penalizes any team that loses after pulling its goalie in overtime.
Michael Amadio also scored and Logan Thompson stopped 32 shots for the Golden Knights, who are 5-0-1 in their last sixth and sit in third place in the Pacific Division.
(At) Edmonton 6, Anaheim 1: Connor McDavid scored two goals and added an assist to take the lead in points this season as Edmonton dumped Anaheim.
Mattias Ekholm had a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who have won three in a row. Adam Henrique, Warren Foegele and Zach Hyman also scored for Edmonton. Calvin Pickard made 22 saves in just missing his second shutout of the season.
Alex Killorn scored late for the Ducks, who have lost four straight and gone 1-9-1 in their last 11 outings, and goalie John Gibson made 31 saves.
San Jose 4, (at) San Jose 0: Ex-Red Wing Filip Zadina and Mikael Granlund scored goals just 27 seconds apart and San Jose dealt a damaging blow to St. Louis' slim playoff chances with a win.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 37 saves for San Jose, which has the worst record in the NHL and snapped a nine-game winless streak with its first victory since March 9.
Luke Kunin also scored and Jan Rutta added an empty-net goal for the Sharks, who beat St. Louis for the second time in as many tries this season. It was Blackwood’s 10th career shutout and second this season.
Joel Hofer made 16 saves for the Blues, who were 7-1-1 in the last nine games. Their loss wrapped up a playoff spot for Vancouver.
(At) Calgary 4, L.A. Kings 2: Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist, Jacob Markstrom made 16 saves and Calgary beat Los Angeles to end a five-game losing streak.
Martin Pospisil, Blake Coleman and MacKenzie Weegar also scored and Andrei Kuzmenko had assists. At 34-34-5, the Flames are outing of playoff contention.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles. Anze Kopitar also scored and former Flames goalie David Rittich stopped 31 shots.
The Kings, at 38-24-11, hold the final wild-card berth in the Western Conference with nine games remaining – five points ahead of St. Louis.
Dallas 3, (at) Seattle 0: Wyatt Johnson had a goal and an assist, Jake Oettinger stopped 18 shots for his second shutout of the season and Dallas beat Seattle for their seventh straight win.
Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz also scored to help the Stars remain on top of the Central Division and Western Conference Standings, three points up on Colorado. Dallas, which clinched its third straight playoff berth with win over Vancouver two nights earlier, trails the New York Rangers by one point in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy.
Oettinger got his ninth career shutout and improved to 30-13-4 on the season.
Joey Daccord finished with 27 saves for the Kraken, who had won two straight after eight consecutive losses. Seattle will finish the regular season as the only NHL team winless at home on Saturdays.
N.Y. Rangers 8, (at) Arizona 5: Alexis Lafreniere had three goals and two assists, Jonathan Quick broke the victory record for U.S.-born goalies and the NHL-leading New York Rangers reached 50th wins, beating Arizona.
Jonathan Quick stopped 27 shots in moving past Ryan Miller with his 392nd victory.
Arteri Panarin had an empty-net goal with 2:25 left, his 44th of the season, and had three assists to give him 63. Lafreniere got the hat trick with an empty-netter with 14 seconds left. He has 25 goals, a career high for the 2020 first overall pick.
Tied at 3-3 in the third period, the Rangers scored three times in the first 10 minutes to seemingly break it open. Chris Kreider, Zac Jones and Barclay Goodrow had the goals in the third, with Goodrow’s short-handed strike the eventual deciding goal.
(At) Colorado 7, Nashville 4: Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, Yakov Trenin got the go-ahead goal against his former team, and Colorado Avalanche rallied to beat penalty-prone Nashville to clinch a playoff spot.
Cale Makar had a goal and two assists, Jonathan Drouin added a goal and an assist, and Casey Mittelstadt and Artturi Lehkonen also scored to help Colorado get a win after two straight losses.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on 13 shots before he was pulled less than a minute into the second period. Justus Annunen came on and stopped all 17 shots he faced the rest of the way to get the win.
Cole Smith, Mark Jankowski, Dante Fabbro, and Gustav Nyquist had goals for Nashville, which lost for a second time since seeing its franchise record 18-game point streak snapped in Thursday’s 8-4 loss at Arizona. Kevin Lankinen finished with 35 saves.
Toronto 3, (at) Buffalo 0: Toronto center Auston Matthews became the NHL’s first two-time 60-goal scorer in 30 years, scoring with 5:37 left in the Maple Leafs’ victory over Buffalo.
Matthews matched the franchise record he set when he led the NHL in goals two seasons ago. The 26-year-old joins a group of eight NHL players to have multiple 60-goal seasons, and first since Pavel Bure had back-to-back 60-goal campaigns with the Vancouver Canucks in 1992-93 and 1993-94.
Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy lead the list with five 60-goal seasons.
Matthews, from Scottsdale, Arizona, became the first U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.
(At) Columbus 4, Pittsburgh 3 (SO): Alexandre Texier and Damon Severson scored in the shootout and Columbus broke a six-game losing streak with a victory over Pittsburgh.
Kirill Marchenko and Zach Werenski scored third-period goals as Columbus rallied from a two-goal deficit. Mathieu Olivier also scored and Elvis Merzlikins made 30 saves.
Drew O’Connor, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rackell scored goals while Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 35 shots for the Penguins, who split a back-to-back series with Columbus and lost to the Blue Jackets for the first time this season.
Carolina 3, (at) Montreal 0: Pyotr Kochetkov made 26 saves for his fourth shutout of the season to help Carolina beat Montreal.
Jordan Staal opened the scoring with a short-handed goal midway through the second period, Sebastian Aho connected on a power play early in the third and Seth Jarvis iced it with an empty-netter.
Carolina improved to 47-21-7. Montreal fell to 28-33-12. The Canadiens had won three in a row.
Chicago 5, (at) Philadelphia 1: Connor Bedard had an assist to increase his rookie-leading points total, Philipp Kurashev, Joey Anderson and Lukas Reichel each added a goal and an assist and Chicago Blackhawks defeated Philadelphia.
Nick Foligno and MacKenzie Entwistle also scored for rebuilding Chicago, which entered with the second-fewest points in the NHL. The Blackhawks improved to 22-47-5 overall and 7-29-1 on the road. Arvid Soderblom made 29 saves.
Tyson Foerster scored for the Flyers, and Samuel Ersson made 19 saves for the Flyers, who are two points ahead of the Red Wings for the wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
(At) Tampa Bay 4, N.Y. Islanders 1: Steven Stamkos reached the 30-goal mark for the ninth time in his career and Tampa Bay beat the New York Islanders to extend their point streak to nine games.
Anthony Cirelli had two goals and an assist, and Darren Raddysh also scored as the Lightning improved to 8-0-1 since March 7 and beat the Islanders for the fifth straight time at Amalie Arena. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to win his seventh straight start against the Islanders and improve to 13-4-0 against them in his career.
Kyle Palmieri scored and Semyon Varlamov had 38 saves for the Islanders, who are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games. They trail Washington by five points for third place in the Metropolitan Division and are also five behind Philadelphia for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Stamkos deflected Emil Lilleberg’s shot past Varlamov 21 seconds into the third period, putting Tampa Bay ahead 3-1. The goal, which survived a video review for a possible high stick, was the 545th of his career, moving him past Hall of Famer Maurice Richard into sole possession of 32nd place on the NHL’s all-time list. Tampa Bay’s captain has scored at least 30 goals in each of the past three seasons.
Ottawa 3, (at) Winnipeg 2: Brady Tkachuk scored the winning goal on the power play with 1:45 left in the game to give Ottawa a victory over Winnipeg.
Ridly Greig and Boris Katchouk also scored for the Senators. Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves for Ottawa, which extended its winning streak to five games.
Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers replied for Winnipeg. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 shots for Winnipeg in front of their fourth straight sellout crowd of 15,225 fans. It was Winnipeg’s sixth consecutive loss.
Playoff tracker
Atlantic
▶ Bruins (101)
▶ Panthers (99)
▶ Maple Leafs (93)
Metropolitan
▶ Rangers (104)
▶ Hurricanes (101)
▶ Capitals (82)
Wild card
▶ Lightning (89)
▶ Flyers (82)
(Top two wild-card teams make the playoffs)
▶ Red Wings (80)
▶ Islanders (77)
▶ Devils (76)
▶ Sabres (75)
▶ Penguins (75)
If playoffs started Sunday
Eastern Conference playoff matchups
▶ (1M) Rangers vs. Flyers (WC2)
▶ (A2) Panthers vs. Maple Leafs (A3)
▶ (1A) Bruins vs. Lightning (WC1)
▶ (2M) Hurricanes vs. (3M) Capitals
Remaining games in wild-card race
Capitals (82 points)
▶ Home (4): Penguins, Senators, Lightning, Bruins
▶ Away (5): Sabres, Hurricanes, Wings, Sabres, Flyers
Flyers (82 points)
▶ Home (3): Islanders, Devils, Capitals
▶ Away (4): Sabres, Blue Jackets, Canadiens, Rangers
Red Wings (80)
▶ Home (4): Rangers, Sabres, Capitals, Canadiens
▶ Away (4): Lightning, Penguins, Leafs, Canadiens
Islanders (77)
▶ Home (4): Predators, Rangers, Canadiens, Penguins
▶ Away (5): Lightning, Flyers, Blue Jackets, Rangers, Devils
Milwaukee 2, Grand Rapids 1 (OT)
Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Albert Johansson scored in the final minute to earn a point in a 2-1 overtime loss against the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday at Panther Arena in Milwaukee.
Goaltender Sebastian Cossa pushed his record-setting point streak to 17 games (11-0-6) and former Spartan Taro Hirose earned his 150th career assist on Johansson's tying goal with :40 seconds left.
Forward Emmitt Finnie also made his AHL debut for the Griffins. The 18-year-old Finnie was a seventh-round pick by the Red Wings in the 2023 NHL draft.
Dubuque 7, NTDP 18s 6 (OT)
James Hagens set career highs with four goals and two assists for the NTDP U18s in Saturday's 7-6 overtime loss against the Dubuque Fighting Saints in Dubuque, Iowa.
The 17-year-old center leads the team in scoring with 27 goals and 48 assist for 75 points in 48 games this year. Cole Eiserman is second in scoring with 48 goals and 25 assists for 73 points in 47 games.
Michigan-area hockey this week
Saturday
▶ Panthers 3, Red Wings 2 (SO)
▶ Milwaukee 2, Grand Rapids 1 (OT)
▶ Dubuque 7, NTDP U18s 6 (OT)
Sunday
▶ Michigan vs. Michigan State, 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Friday
▶ Chicago 4, Grand Rapids 2
▶ Michigan State 5, Western Michigan 4 (OT)
▶ Michigan 4, North Dakota 3
▶ Boston College 6, Michigan Tech 1
▶ NTDP U18s 5, Dubuque 4 (SO)
Thursday
▶ Hurricanes 4, Red Wings 0
▶ Madison 4, NTDP U17s 0
Wednesday
▶ Grand Rapids 5, Cleveland 2
Tuesday
▶ Capitals 4, Red Wings 3 (OT)