Marc-Andre Fleury made 19 saves to register his sixth shutout of the season as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights kept alive their hopes for a West Division title and Presidents’ Trophy with a 6-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Fleury also moved into a tie for 14th place on the NHL’s all-time shutouts list with Roy Worters with the 67th of his career while also extending his personal win streak to nine in a row.
Dylan Sikura scored twice, Jonathan Marchessault and William Carrier each had a goal and an assist and Alex Pietrangelo and Keegan Kolesar also scored goals for Vegas (40-14-2, 82 points), which leads Colorado (38-13-4, 80 points) by two points. However, the Avalanche, by virtue of the more-regulation-wins tiebreaker, can claim the West crown and Presidents’ Trophy with a victory of any kind — regulation, overtime or shootout — over the visiting Los Angeles Kings in their regular-season finale on Thursday night.
Reilly Smith added two assists for the Golden Knights, who won all eight meetings (8-0-0) against San Jose this season.
Alexei Melnichuk, making just his second career NHL start, made 38 saves for the Sharks, who finished with a 21-28-7 record and 49 points and missed the playoffs for the second straight year, losing 14 of their final 17 games in the process.
Avalanche 6, Kings 0
J.T. Compher tallied his first career hat trick and Colorado inched closer to securing the top seed in the West Division by blanking Los Angeles in Denver.
Colorado can secure first place in the West with a win against the visiting Kings on Thursday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist, Mikko Rantanen had three assists, and Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves for his seventh shutout of the season, tying Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders for the NHL lead. Calvin Petersen made 31 saves for the Kings.
Blues 4, Wild 0
Ville Husso made 31 saves to earn his first career shutout as St. Louis blanked visiting Minnesota.
David Perron (goal, two assists) and Torey Krug (goal, assist) paced the offense for the fast-finishing Blues. They have earned points in 10 of their last 11 games while going 7-1-3. The Blues, who are 5-1-1 against the Wild this season, also got goals from Ivan Barbashev and Jaden Schwartz.
The Wild came into the game with an outside shot at finishing second in the West Division. But that quest ended with the loss and they settled for third place.
Oilers 4, Canadiens 3 (OT)
Dominik Kahun scored 27 seconds into overtime to give Edmonton a victory over host Montreal.
Alex Chiasson and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist for Edmonton, with Draisaitl setting up Kahun’s OT winner. Connor McDavid and Tyson Barrie each had two assists for the Oilers. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers. Mike Smith stopped 26 of 29 shots for his 21st victory of the season.
Nick Suzuki scored two goals and Cole Caufield had a goal and an assist for Montreal. Cayden Primeau stopped 18 of 22 shots for the Canadiens.
Senators 4, Maple Leafs 3 (OT)
Josh Norris scored nine seconds into overtime and host Ottawa ended its season by beating playoff-bound Toronto.
After the Maple Leafs had tied the game late in the third period, the Senators struck quickly in overtime when Brady Tkachuk set up Norris for his 17th goal of the season. Nikita Zaitsev, Connor Brown and Parker Kelly also scored for the Senators, who got 30 saves from Filip Gustavsson.
Jake Muzzin had a goal and an assist for Toronto. John Tavares and Auston Matthews added goals for the Maple Leafs, who have one game left in the regular season and are first in the North Division. Frederik Andersen, who had been out with a lower-body injury, started his first game for the Maple Leafs since March 19 and made 24 saves.
–Field Level Media
