Tuesday's hockey: Rangers first team to clinch playoff spot; Hyman scores 51st goal in OT
New York – Adam Fox scored 36 seconds into overtime and the New York Rangers became the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season, beating the Philadelphia Flyers 6-5 following a wild third period Tuesday night.
Alexis Lafreniere had two goals and Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves for the Rangers, who lead the league with 100 points after giving coach Peter Laviolette his 800th career win.
New York technically secured its third consecutive playoff berth just by getting to overtime and earning one point after Detroit lost to Washington in OT.
“For us to stay as consistent as we have says a lot about our group,’’ said Fox, who has points in eight straight games. "It’s big for us to clinch that playoff spot. It’s just the first step.”
But after the teams traded seven goals in a frenetic third period, it didn't take long for Fox to finish the night in style with a wrist shot from the high slot for his 15th goal, adding to the star defenseman's career high.
Vincent Trocheck, Mika Zibanejad and Jonny Brodzinski also scored for the Rangers, who extended their Metropolitan Division lead to three points over Carolina.
Third-place Philadelphia has nine games remaining and will play five of its last seven against division opponents including the Rangers again in New York on April 11.
More NHL games
Boston 4, (at) Florida 3 (OT): Pavel Zacha scored the winning goal with 2:21 as the Bruins broke a tie with Florida atop the Atlantic Division and now hold a two-point lead although the Panthers have played one less game.
Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak and Trent Frederic also scored for the Bruins and Jeremy Swayman made 18 saves.
Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers while Sergei Bobrovsky made 17 saves.
Edmonton 4, (at) Winnipeg 3 (OT): Zach Hyman (Michigan) scored his 51st goal of the season 1:22 into overtime, sending the Jets to their fourth straight loss.
Hyman, whose winner was the 200th goal of his career, has five goals in a four-game scoring streak.
Leon Draisaitl, Connor Brown and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who halted a two-game skid. Nugent-Hopkins added an assist and Connor McDavid finished with two assists, extending his point streak to five games with one goal and 12 assists.
Stuart Skinner stopped 22 shots for Edmonton, which went 1-2 on a three-game trip.
(At) Seattle 4, Anaheim 0: Eeli Tolvanan and Matty Beniers each had a goal and an assist as the Kraken halted an eight-game losing streak.
Jordan Eberle and Oliver Bjorkstrand also scored for Seattle (29-29-13). Eberle’s goal was the 299th of his career and 17th this season.
Joey Daccord made 12 saves in his third shutout for the Kraken, who went 0-6-2 in the previous eight games – seriously dimming their playoff hopes. Seattle also went 0-6-2 from Nov. 24 to Dec. 10 this season.
The Ducks (24-44-4), already eliminated from playoff contention, lost for the ninth time in 10 games.
(At) Arizona 6, Columbus 2: Josh Doan had two goals including the go-ahead score in his first NHL game for the Coyotes.
Nick Bjugstad, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Guenther and Matias Maccelli also scored as Arizona pulled away with four goals in the third period. Doan deflected a shot by Maccelli past Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins with 8:29 left in the third for the go-ahead score. Karel Vejmelka stopped 24 shots for the Coyotes.
The son of longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan, Josh Doan scored an unassisted goal in the second period to put Arizona ahead 2-1, backhanding the puck past Merzlikins at close range.
Montreal 2, (at) Colorado 1: Sam Montembeault made 27 saves in coach Martin St. Louis’ return to the team.
Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia scored for the Canadiens, who snapped Colorado’s nine-game win streak. They won consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 15-17 and swept the two-game season series from the Avalanche.
“We raise our game against good competition,” Suzuki said. “It really forces guys to be dialed in. If we’re not dialed in they’re going to pick us apart.”
St. Louis was behind the Montreal bench after missing four games to be with his family. His 16-year-old son, Mason, got hurt during a youth hockey game and then suffered complications from the injury and was hospitalized.
The Canadiens went 1-2-1 with assistant Trevor Letowski handling the head-coaching duties.
(At) Chicago 3, Calgary 1: Jason Dickinson scored twice, Petr Mrazek made 40 saves for the Blackhawks.
Seth Jones also scored for Chicago, and Joey Anderson had two assists. Connor Bedard, who wrapped the blade of his stick in rainbow-colored Pride tape for warmups on Pride Night, picked up his team-best 35th assist.
Blackhawks rookie Landon Slaggert had two assists for his first points in his sixth NHL game. But he was turned away by Calgary defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on a prime scoring opportunity, and then came up empty on another chance.
Calgary dropped its fourth consecutive game. Weegar scored his 17th goal with 7:35 left, and Jacob Markstrom made 24 stops.
New Jersey 6, (at) Toronto 3: Nico Hischier had a goal and two assists and Jake Allen made 42 saves for the Devils.
The Maple Leafs built a 25-10 advantage in shots on goal in the first period, but trailed 2-1. Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe was not happy as the Devils capitalized on the Leafs' errors.
“It was immature from our most experienced players and our leaders, and then our players who are immature – our inexperienced guys – made lots of mistakes," Keefe said.
Jack Hughes scored twice, including into the empty net, and Timo Meier added a goal and an assist for the Devils, who have won four of their last five games. Luke Hughes and Max Willman also scored for New Jersey. Jesper Bratt added three assists and Curtis Lazar had two.
Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 59th goal. William Nylander and Tyler Bertuzzi also scored and Joseph Woll had 19 saves for Toronto. T.J. Brodie had two assists.
(At) Pittsburgh 4, Carolina 1: Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist and the Penguins scored two goals on five shots in the second period, spoiling Jake Guentzel’s return to Pittsburgh with a victory over Carolina.
Bryan Rust (Pontiac) scored his 23rd of the season and his seventh goal in 10 games. Jesse Puljujarvi added his third of the season – and second in as many games for the Penguins, who were outshot 31-14 in the last two periods. Drew O’Connor added an empty-net goal at 18:04 of the third.
Crosby scored his 35th goal of the season and became the first active player, and 14th in NHL history, with 15 or more 40-assist seasons. The Penguins snapped a three-game losing streak and rebounded from an overtime loss at Colorado on Sunday, when they squandered a four-goal lead.
Ex-Wing Alex Nedeljkovic, Carolina’s second-round draft pick in 2014, stopped 38 shots for Pittsburgh.
(At) Nashville 5, Vegas 4 (OT): Roman Josi scored 40 seconds into overtime to lead Nashville to a victory over Vegas, and extended the team’s stretch of consecutive games unbeaten in regulation to a franchise-record 18.
Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists, Ryan O’Reilly and Gustav Nyquist each had a goal and an assist and Mark Jankowski also scored and Juuse Saros made 31 saves for Nashville, which last lost a game in regulation Feb. 15 and 16-0-2 since.
William Karlsson scored a goal and assisted on another, Ivan Barbashev, Brett Howden and Shea Theodore also scored and Jiri Patera made 31 saves for Vegas, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Anthony Mantha had two assists.
Dallas 6, (at) San Jose 3: Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson each scored twice, Jamie Benn added a goal and two assists, and Dallas beat San Jose for their fifth straight win.
Dallas took over sole possession of first place in the Central Division by two points over the Colorado Avalanche, who lost at home to Montreal.
San Jose has lost eight straight games and 17 of 18.
Benn extended his goal streak to five games, his longest since 2014. The 34-year-old Stars captain and the 20-year-old Johnston were all over the ice, teaming up on half of Dallas’ goals.
Playoff tracker
Atlantic
▶ Bruins (99)
▶ Panthers (97)
▶ Maple Leafs (89)
Metropolitan
▶ Rangers (100)
▶ Hurricanes (97)
▶ Flyers (82)
Wild card
▶ Lightning (85)
▶ Capitals (81)
(Top two wild-card teams make the playoffs)
▶ Red Wings (79)
▶ Devils (76)
▶ Islanders (75)
▶ Sabres (73)
▶ Penguins (72)
If playoffs started Wednesday
Eastern Conference playoff matchups
▶ (1M) Rangers vs. Capitals (WC2)
▶ (1A) Panthers vs. Lightning (WC1)
▶ (2A) Bruins vs. Leafs (3A)
▶ (2M) Hurricanes vs. (3M) Flyers
Remaining games in wild-card race
Capitals (81 points)
▶ Home (5): Bruins, Penguins, Senators, Lightning, Bruins
▶ Away (6): Leafs, Sabres, Hurricanes, Wings, Sabres, Flyers
Red Wings (79)
▶ Home (4): Rangers, Sabres, Capitals, Canadiens
▶ Away (6): Hurricanes, Panthers, Lightning, Penguins, Leafs, Canadiens
Islanders (75)
▶ Home (5): Blackhawks, Predators, Rangers, Canadiens, Penguins
▶ Away (6): Panthers, Lightning, Flyers, Blue Jackets, Rangers, Devils
Michigan-area hockey this week
Tuesday
▶ Capitals 4, Red Wings 3 (OT)
Wednesday
▶ Cleveland at Grand Rapids, 7 p.m. (AHL/106.9/1300)
Thursday
▶ Red Wings at Carolina, 7 p.m. (BSD/97.1)
▶ Madison at NTDP U17s, 7 p.m.
Friday
▶ Grand Rapids at Chicago, 8 p.m. (AHL/106.9/97.1)
▶ Michigan State vs. Western Michigan, 5 p.m. (ESPNU/ESPN+)
▶ Michigan vs. North Dakota, 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
▶ Michigan Tech vs. Boston College, 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
▶ NTDP U18s at Dubuque, 8 p.m.
Saturday
▶ Red Wings at Florida, 12:30 p.m. (NHL/BSD Extra/97.1)
▶ Grand Rapids at Milwaukee, 7 p.m. (AHL/106.9/1300)
▶ NTDP U18s at Dubuque, 8 p.m.
Sunday
▶ Frozen Four regional final, 6:30 p.m. (ESPNU)