Saturday, March 26, 2016

NHL Capsules (March 26, 2016)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The date in the title of these capsules is the day after the games took place. That will be the same for the rest of the capsules that we post. Before, we would label the title "Recaps of last night's NHL games," or "Recaps of yesterday's NHL games." We will no longer be doing that.

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NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) " John Carlson scored at 2:17 of overtime and Braden Holtby made 22 saves as the Washington Capitals moved within grasping distance of the Presidents' Trophy with a 1-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils in the NHL on Friday.

Carlson, playing for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury on Feb. 24, took a pass from Jason Chimera and ripped a shot from the right circle that beat Scott Wedgewood.

Wedgewood, who shut out Pittsburgh on Thursday night, had his shutout streak of 159 minutes, 34 seconds ended by the goal, only the second he has given up in three NHL starts. He stopped 25 shots

The win gave Washington 111 points. They can clinch their first Presidents' Trophy since 2009-10 with a point against the Blues on Saturday or Dallas losing earlier in the day.

Chimera took a pass from Marcus Johansson on the winning play, circled the Devils' net and found Carlson in the circle for his seventh goal of the season.

Holtby is three wins away from tying Martin Brodeur's NHL single-season record of 48 wins.

BLUES 4, CANUCKS 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) " Brian Elliott made 15 saves for his third straight shutout and St. Louis beat Vancouver to clinch a playoff spot and tie Dallas for the Central Division lead.

Robby Fabbri had a goal and an assist, Kyle Brodziak, Fabbri, Carl Gunnarsson and Joel Edmundson also scored, and Paul Stastny had two assists.

Elliott hasn't allowed a goal since returning from a lower-body injury March 19.

The Canucks have a seven-game winless streak at 0-6-1, their longest streak since January and February in 2014. They have been shut out in four of their last five games.

LIGHTNING 7, ISLANDERS 4

TAMPA, Florida (AP) " Tyler Johnson and Jason Garrison scored 23 seconds apart midway through the third period as Tampa Bay beat New York.

Tampa Bay defenseman Anton Stralman left in the first with a non-displaced fracture of the left fibula after getting checked by Anders Lee. Stralman will miss the rest of the regular season, but coach Jon Cooper didn't rule out a return at some point in the playoffs.

Johnson had a go-ahead rebound goal at 10:09 before Garrison stopped a 26-game goal drought and put the Lightning up 6-4. Garrison also had two assists after going 18 games without a point.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Steven Stamkos, Andrej Sustr and Victor Hedman, who had an empty-netter. The Lightning host Florida on Saturday night with first place in the Atlantic Division at stake as both teams have 91 points.

Brock Nelson, Shane Prince, Johnny Boychuk and Nikolav Kulemin scored for the Islanders. They remained a point behind third-place Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division.

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