BLUE JACKETS 3, RANGERS 2
NEW YORK -- Artemi
Panarin scored in the shootout and the Columbus Blue
Jackets clinched the last playoff spot in the Eastern
Conference with a 3-2 victory over the New York
Rangers on Friday night.
Ryan Dzingel and
Panarin scored in the third period for Columbus and Sergei
Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots through overtime and all three Rangers
attempts in the tiebreaker.
The Blue Jackets, 8-2-2 in their past 12 games, secured
their third straight playoff berth and hold the second wild card in the Eastern
Conference.
Columbus pulled within one point of Carolina for the first
wild card heading into the final day of the regular season on Saturday. The
Blue Jackets close the season at Ottawa, while the Hurricanes play at
Philadelphia.
Chris Kreider scored
early in the second period and Pavel
Buchnevich tied it in the closing seconds of regulation for the
Rangers. Alexandar
Georgiev finished with 39 saves in New York's third straight
loss and 16th in the past 20 (4-10-6) heading into the finale at Pittsburgh on
Saturday night.
After Panarin beat Georgiev in the second round of the
shootout, Bobrovsky denied Tony DeAngelo on
the Rangers' last attempt to secure the win.
BLACKHAWKS 6, STARS 1
CHICAGO -- Patrick Kane scored
twice and Cam Ward made
25 saves in his 700th NHL game, helping Chicago pound short-handed Dallas in
its home finale.
Dylan Strome, Chris Kunitz and Dominik Kahun also
scored for Chicago, which earned its second straight win and improved to 3-0-2
in its past five. Slater
Koekkoek added his second of the season, and Brent
Seabrook had two assists.
Dallas (42-32-7) clinched a playoff spot with Tuesday
night's 6-2 victory over Philadelphia, but it needs at least one more point to
secure the Western Conference's top wild card.
The Stars host Minnesota in their season finale, and
Colorado is just one point back heading into its final game at San Jose later
Saturday night.
Captain Jamie Benn,
goaltender Ben Bishop,
forward Mats
Zuccarello and defenseman Roman Polak skipped
the trip to Chicago. Bishop remained sidelined by a lower-body injury, and
Benn, Zuccarello and Polak got a chance to rest.
Joel
L'Esperance scored for Dallas in the third period, and Anton
Khudobin made 26 stops.
DUCKS 5, KINGS 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Korbinian
Holzer scored his first NHL goal in just over two years, Sam Steeladded
a short-handed goal and Anaheim punctuated a miserable hockey season in
Southern California with a victory over Los Angeles.
Daniel Sprong, Carter Rowney and Jakob
Silfverberg also scored, and John Gibson made
44 saves as the Ducks earned their first victory in four games in this season's
Freeway Faceoff rivalry.
Both teams are missing the Stanley Cup playoffs in the same
season for the first time since 2004, and the Ducks missed the postseason for
the first time in seven years despite 11 wins in their final 17 games.
Michael
Amadio and Carl
Grundstrom scored and Jack Campbell stopped
28 shots for the Kings, who have the NHL's second-worst record with one game to
play -- one point fewer than New Jersey.
Rookie Max Jones had
two assists in his first career multi-point game for the Ducks (35-37-10), who
surged to finish with 80 points, matching the franchise's lowest total in a
full season since 2004.
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