Apr 7, 2018 6 min read

Claude Giroux earned his first career hat trick in the regular season and the Philadelphia Flyers clinched a playoff berth in their final regular-season game with a 5-0 victory over the New York Rangers Saturday.

Giroux finished with 34 goals and 102 points. He extended his career highs in points and goals while becoming the sixth player in franchise history to reach 100 points in a season.

Michael Raffl and Ivan Provorov also scored for the Flyers, who needed at least one point to make the playoffs and eliminate the Florida Panthers from postseason contention.

The Flyers (42-26-14) are returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and will be vying for their third Stanley Cup. The club won back-to-back titles in 1973-74 and 1974-75.

The Flyers’ captain scored his first two goals during Philadelphia’s dominating second period in which it outscored the Rangers 3-0 thanks in part to an 18-5 shots advantage.

Washington 5, New Jersey 3: Alex Ovechkin scored twice to make it an NHL-leading 49 goals as the Washington Capitals beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3 in each team’s regular-season finale.

Serenaded by chants of “We want 50,” Ovechkin wrapped up his seventh Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal-scorer and came one short of his eighth 50-goal season. Ovechkin scored for the third consecutive game and is the oldest player to lead the NHL in goals since Phil Esposito in 1974-75.

By beating the Devils in regulation, the Metropolitan Division-champion Capitals ensured they wouldn’t face them in the first round of the playoffs. Playing without MVP front-runner Taylor Hall, New Jersey fell to the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and will open on the road against the Atlantic Division winner – either Boston or Tampa Bay.

Nicklas Backstrom, Michal Kempny and Andre Burakovsky also scored, and Braden Holtby stopped 23 of the 26 shots in his final chance to show he deserves to be Washington’s Game 1 starting goaltender over Philipp Grubauer. The Capitals will face either Columbus or Philadelphia in the first round after the Flyers clinched the East’s final spot Saturday afternoon.

Boston 5, Ottawa 2: David Pastrnak and Tommy Wingels scored 51 seconds apart in the second period, and Boston beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2, preserving the Bruins’ chances for the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

Danton Heinen also scored for Boston, which added late goals by Noel Acciari and David Backes in the final two minutes to put away the Senators and complete the season sweep.

Anton Khudobin stopped 26 shots for the Bruins, who host Florida on Sunday night in a game postponed by a winter storm Jan. 4. Boston trails Tampa Bay, which lost in overtime at Carolina, by one point for the top spot in the East and the Atlantic Division.

Ryan Dzingel scored both goals for Ottawa and Colin White had two assists. Daniel Taylor made 29 saves for the Senators, who finished 28-43-11 one year after reaching the Eastern Conference finals.

After falling behind 1-0 on Dzingel’s goal 12:31 into the game, Boston tied it on Pastrnak’s power-play goal 8:08 into the second period. The tie lasted less than a minute before Wingels fired a wrist shot that Taylor got his glove on but couldn’t hold and the puck bounced over the goal line at 8:59 of the second.

Heinen made a steal at the Boston blue line and took it the other way, beating Taylor on a wrist shot with 2:59 left in the second.

Dzingel pulled Ottawa to 3-2 at 7:07 of the third with his second goal of the game, but Acciari added an insurance goal for Boston with 1:51 left and David Backes scored on an empty net with 43 seconds left to play.

Carolina 3, Tampa Bay 2: Elias Lindholm scored 49 seconds into overtime, and the Carolina Hurricanes prevented Tampa Bay from clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference by beating the Lightning 3-2.

Justin Williams had a goal and an assist, Jordan Staal scored a deflected goal and Phil Di Giuseppe had two assists for the Hurricanes. They had lost three straight and four of five down the stretch during their ninth straight season without making the playoffs – tied for the third-longest such drought in NHL history.

Ondrej Palat scored the tying goal with 8:49 left and Ryan Callahan also scored for Tampa Bay. But with star Steven Stamkos out for a third straight game with an upper-body injury, the Lightning earned one point for going to OT but relinquished control of the Atlantic Division race to Boston.

The Bruins, who beat Ottawa 5-2 on Saturday night, will win the division and claim the top spot in the East if they beat Florida on Sunday night.

The winning goal came after Teuvo Teravainen charged between the circles and looked left to Lindholm, who one-timed it past Louis Domingue.

That came after J.T. Miller set up Tampa Bay’s tying goal when he found Palat with a slick pass and the defenseman one-timed it by Ward to make it 2-2.

Cam Ward made 32 saves against the NHL’s highest-scoring offense. The Lightning average a league-best 3.56 goals.

New York 4, Detroit 3: John Tavares scored 3:16 into overtime as the New York Islanders rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in the season finale .

Tavares, set to be a free agent in the offseason, snapped a wrist shot past Red Wings goalie Jared Coreau on the stick side.

Ryan Pulock’s power-play goal with 29.7 seconds left in regulation sent the game to the extra period as Detroit squandered a 3-1 lead.

Anders Lee got his 40th goal and Andrew Ladd also scored for the Islanders (35-37-10), who are missing the playoffs for the second straight year and eighth in the last 11. Thomas Greiss stopped 36 shots to help New York win its third straight, it’s best streak since a three-game run Jan. 7-15.

Mathew Barzal had two assists for the Islanders to give him 63, tying Bryan Trottier’s franchise record for a rookie set in 1975-76. It also tied Barzal with Penguins star Sidney Crosby (2005-06) for the second-most in the NHL by a rookie since the 1983-84 season. Joe Juneau leads that list with 70 for Boston in 1992-93.

Henrik Zetterberg, Justin Abdelkader and Dylan Larkin scored for the Red Wings (30-39-13), who are also missing the postseason for a second straight season after making it in 25 straight. Larkin’s goal was his seventh in the last 10 games. Coreau finished with 35 saves.