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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

NHL Capsules (April 6, 2016)

WASHINGTON (AP) Thomas Hickey scored in overtime as the New York Islanders rallied from two goals down in the third period to beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 on Tuesday night to clinch a playoff berth.

Hickey returned to the game after being cut by a skate and beat Braden Holtby 2:13 into overtime to complete the comeback and secure the Islaznders' third postseason appearance in four years.

Holtby allowed four goals on 27 shots and lost in his first attempt to tie Martin Brodeur's single-season wins record.

John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Anders Lee also scored for New York, which got a 29-save performance from Christopher Gibson in his first career NHL start.

Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 46th and 47th goals of the season, and T.J. Oshie also scored for Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington, which has three games remaining for Holtby to attempt to tie or break Brodeur's record.

PENGUINS 5, SENATORS 3

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - Sidney Crosby and Carl Hagelin each scored twice and Pittsburgh won its seventh straight.

Crosby's pair included an empty-netter and Patric Hornqvist also scored for the Penguuins. Rookie goaltender Matt Murray made 27 saves.

Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman and Zack Smith scored for the Senators, who blew a 3-0 lead. Andrew Hammond stopped 23 of 27 shots.

Tied 3-3, the Senators failed to score on a 1:32 two-man advantage, and then Kris Letang sprawled across the crease to make a huge save behind Murray that looked like a sure goal.

Then a harmless looking shot from Hagelin found its way past Hammond to make it 4-3 Pittsburgh.

HURRICANES 2, BRUINS 1, SO

BOSTON (AP) - Noah Hanifin scored the only goal of a shootout in the fifth round and Cam Ward stopped 35 shots to help Carolina dent Boston's playoff hopes.

Loui Eriksson's third-period tying goal helped the Bruins force overtime and earn one point, giving them 91 for the season and moving them into a tie with the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers for the Eastern Conference's last two playoff spots.

The Flyers have four games remaining and Detroit has three; Boston has two, including Thursday night against the Red Wings.

Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina, which is already out of playoff contention.

Tuukka Rask stopped 27 shots for the Bruins.

PREDATORS 4, AVALANCHE 3

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Craig Smith scored at 4:17 of the third period, and Nashvilleeliminated Colorado from playoff contention.

With the win, the Predators snapped their own four-game winless skid that started with a loss to Colorado in Nashville on March 28.

Colin Wilson and Filip Forsberg each scored a goal and an assist for Nashville, and Ryan Johansen had two assists.

Shawn Mattias had a goal and an assist, and Jarome Iginla and Mikkel Boedker each scored a goal as Colorado lost its fourth straight.

The Avalanche had to win out with Minnesota losing its final two to catch the Wild for the Western Conference's second wild-card berth.

BLACKHAWKS 6, COYOTES 2

CHICAGO (AP) - Andrew Ladd scored two power-play goals after Artem Anisimov was knocked out of the game by a questionable hit from Antoine Vermette, and surgingChicago beat Arizona.

Anisimov was driven into the boards near Chicago's bench midway through the second, leading to a boarding penalty and game misconduct call on Vermette. Anisimov, a key part of the Blackhawks' high-scoring second line, looked woozy as he left the ice and headed to the locker room.

After Vermette and Anisimov left for the night, Ladd redirected Trevor van Riemsdyk's slap shot by Louis Domingue to make it 4-0 at 12:17. Then Ladd got a pass from Patrick Kane and stuffed it home from the front of the net for the Blackhawks' third power-play goal of the period.

Chicago won for the fifth time in six games and pulled within four points of idle Dallas and St. Louis for the Central Division lead with two games left for each team.

RANGERS 3, LIGHTNING 2

NEW YORK (AP) - Derek Stepan scored twice and set up Chris Kreider's winner while rallying New York to its second straight win.

Henrik Lundqvist withstood a 21-shot first-period barrage and finished with 39 saves for the Rangers. Mats Zuccarello added two assists for New York, which will be without captain Ryan McDonagh for the final week of the regular season because of an upper-body injury.

Andrej Sustr and Brian Boyle staked the Lightning to an early 2-0 lead, but they could not hold off the Rangers in the final two periods. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for Tampa Bay, which earned its third straight playoff berth when Boston lost in a shootout to Carolina.

SHARKS 3, WILD 0

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - James Reimer made 29 saves for his third shutout in eight games as San Jose beat playoff-bound Minnesota.

Patrick Marleau scored twice and Logan Couture added his fifth goal in the past four games for San Jose, which owns an NHL-high 28 road wins this season.

The Wild lost their fourth straight game and second straight with a chance to clinch a playoff berth but backed into a postseason spot when Colorado lost to Nashville on Tuesday night.

Devan Dubnyk made 17 saves for the Wild.

KINGS 5, FLAMES 4, OT

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Jeff Carter scored 20 seconds into overtime after Kris Versteeg tied it with 35.1 seconds left in the third period to help Los Angeles beat Calgary.

Milan Lucic had two goals for the Kings, and Andy Andreoff also scored. Anze Kopitar had two assists and Jhonas Enroth made 19 saves.

Defensemen Deryk Engelland and Mark Giordano had a goal and an assist each for the Flames, while Mikael Backlund and Hunter Shinkaruk also scored. Johnny Gaudreau had two assists and Joni Ortio made 21 saves.

Engelland put Calgary ahead with 4:01 left with a shot to Enroth's short side, but then Versteeg got a fluke goal. Ortio stopped Versteeg's initial shot before he accidentally put it into his own net with the knob of his stick.

JETS 2, DUCKS 1, OT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Blake Wheeler scored with 1:53 left in overtime, and Winnipegrallied for a victory over Anaheim.

Marko Dano scored the tying goal with 3:46 to play for the last-place Jets, who won their second straight with a late rally to stun the Pacific Division leaders. Michael Hutchinson stopped 27 shots in his first victory since March 14.

John Gibson made 24 saves and Corey Perry scored a power-play goal in the first period for the Ducks, who fell into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Kings atop the Pacific Division. Both teams have 99 points heading into their Freeway Faceoff showdown at Staples Center on Thursday.

PANTHERS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) - Roberto Luongo made 32 saves and Aleksander Barkov got his 28th goal to help Florida win its fourth straight and clinch first place in the Atlantic Divisioin.

Nick Bjugstad, Greg McKegg and Jiri Hudler also scored for the Panthers, and Jaromir Jagr had two assists.

Alex Galchenyuk got his 28th goal for Montreal, and Mike Condon stopped 15 of 19 shots.

Florida swept the season series against Montreal, winning all four games.

Barkov scored just 10 seconds into the contest, tying a Panthers franchise record set in 1996 for fastest goal to start a game.

SABRES 3, DEVILS 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Jack Eichel got his 24th goal and Ryan O'Reilly got his 21st to help Buffalo beat New Jersey.

Johan Larsson also scored and Chad Johnson made 18 saves for the Sabres.

Both teams have been eliminated from playoff contention. The Sabres have been near the bottom of the Eastern Conference most of the season, and the Devils were eliminated on Saturday.

The Sabres are closing out strong, though. The win was their third straight, and they are 7-2-2 in their last 11 games.

The Devils have dropped three games in a row, dropping to 1-4-1 in the last six.

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