NHL roundup

NHL roundup

Tuesday’s games

Penguins 2, Islanders 1

PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang scored the only goal of the shootout with a pretty backhand past New York Islanders rookie goalie Jean-Francois Berube to lift the Penguins to a home victory. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo and John Tavares in the shootout as Pittsburgh strengthened its hold on the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Fleury finished with 25 saves for the Penguins. Chris Kunitz scored his 14th goal of the season in the 800th game of his career. Sidney Crosby picked up the secondary assist to extend his points streak to nine games. Berube made 33 stops in his third NHL start, including several in the extra period. Okposo’s score at 14:35 of the third sent the game to overtime, but the Islanders couldn’t pick up the additional point when they failed to solve Fleury in the shootout.

Capitals 2, Hurricanes 1

WASHINGTON

Alex Ovechkin scored in overtime and the Washington Capitals picked up their 50th win of the season and became the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot as they beat the Carolina Hurricanes. Ovechkin scored his seventh game-winner of the season 2:38 into overtime after the Capitals clinched a playoff spot by picking up a point. It’s their eighth playoff appearance in nine seasons and one that has been inevitable for a long time as they’ve skated away from the rest of the field. Justin Williams also scored for Washington, which got 25 saves from Braden Holtby. Hurricanes goaltender Eddie Lack stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced. Jordan Staal scored for Carolina, which had its dim playoff hopes take another hit.

Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 1

TORONTO

Ben Smith and Connor Carrick scored their first goals of the season for Toronto. With the win, the Leafs have won back-to-back games and picked up points in four of their past five. Zach Hyman and P.A. Parenteau added empty-net goals while Jonathan Bernier made 26 saves for his ninth win of the season. Brian Boyle scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots in the loss. Tampa dropped to 7-2-0 in its past nine road games. Toronto snapped its three-game losing streak against Tampa Bay. With the Leafs leading 1-0, Peter Holland had two excellent opportunities 2:35 into the third period, but was unable to solve Vasilevskiy. Boyle tied it 1-1 at 6:33 of the third period, beating Bernier low blocker side for his 11th of the season.

Flyers 4, Red Wings 3

PHILADELPHIA

Michael Raffl scored two goals and the Philadelphia Flyers won a pivotal game in their playoff push, defeating the Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers have 78 points and pulled within one point of the Red Wings for the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff berth. The Flyers dominated the Red Wings early and outshot Detroit 23-3 in the first period. They held on after Detroit’s Tomas Tatar scored with 3:46 left in the game to make it 4-3. Raffle and Wayne Simmonds both scored in the first to give the Flyers a lead they would never relinquish. With 14 games left this season, the Flyers need every point possible to reach the playoffs.

Panthers 4, Canadiens 1

MONTREAL

Vincent Trochek scored a goal and set up one by Jiri Hudler and Florida downed injury-riddled Montreal. Nick Bjugstad and Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida, which has won three of its past four games to stay in the tight battle for first place in the Atlantic Division with Tampa Bay and Boston. Alex Galchenyuk, with his 12th goal in 10 games, scored for Montreal, which lost a second in a row at home. Trocheck has two goals and six assists in his past four games. Jaromir Jagr got his 1,111th career assist on Barkov’s goal. Florida outshot the Canadiens 36-28. The Panthers dominated the first period and scored at 11:46 when Trocheck finished a tic-tac-toe rush with Brian Campbell and Reilly Smith with a wrist shot inside the near post.

Associated Press