Connor McDavid scored on a breakaway 2:42 into overtime as the Edmonton Oilers beat host Montreal 4-3 on Monday night, but the result was enough to send the Canadiens to the playoffs.
McDavid took a feed from Leon Draisaitl and roofed the game winner over Montreal goalie Jake Allen for his 33rd goal and a two-point game.
By earning a point, the Canadiens locked up the NHL’s final Stanley Cup playoff berth — fourth place in the North Division — and will make their third postseason appearance in the past five seasons.
James Neal, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Dominik Kahun potted goals for the Oilers, who are 7-2-0 in their past nine games and own the division’s second playoff spot. Jake Evans and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and two assists for the Canadiens, and Paul Byron added a goal and an assist.
Bruins 3, Islanders 2 (OT)
Taylor Hall scored the game-winner 2:53 into overtime as Boston locked up the No. 3 seed in the East with a victory over visiting New York.
Hall also scored in regulation for the Bruins, Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist and Tuukka Rask stopped 16 shots. David Krejci added three helpers.
Oliver Wahlstrom and Mathew Barzal tallied for the Islanders. Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves over the first two periods before being replaced by Ilya Sorokin to begin the third period for undisclosed reasons. Sorokin added 10 saves.
Panthers 4, Lightning 0
Florida will have the home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs against visiting Tampa Bay, which it blanked in Sunrise, Fla.
Chris Driedger made 30 saves and registered his third shutout of the season and the fourth of his career, and MacKenzie Weegar, Juho Lammikko, Carter Varhaeghe and Alex Wennberg scored for Florida. Lammikko also had an assist.
The Panthers needed just a point Monday to secure the second overall seed in the Central Division, but they got two points for the victory. Florida ends the regular season four points ahead of the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves for Tampa Bay.
Predators 5, Hurricanes 0
Matt Duchene scored two goals and host Nashville defeated Carolina in a preview of a first-round Central Division playoff series.
The Predators, who two nights earlier clinched the fourth seed in the division by snapping Carolina’s 13-game points streak, also received goals from Rocco Grimaldi, Ryan Johansen and Tanner Jeannot. Johansen and Jeannot both had assists.
Nashville’s Pekka Rinne made 30 saves, recording 10 in each period. Rinne has two of the Predators’ four shutouts this season. Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek, whose record dropped to 6-2-3, stopped 22 shots and might have hurt his bid to be the starter in the playoff opener.
Flyers 4, Devils 2
Joel Farabee scored two goals to lift host Philadelphia past New Jersey in the season finale for both teams. Neither team qualified for the playoffs.
Sean Couturier added one goal and one assist while James van Riemsdyk also had one goal for the Flyers. Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes and Wade Allison had two assists each, and Brian Elliott made 23 saves for the win.
The Devils got goals from Janne Kuokkanen and Pavel Zacha. New Jersey’s Scott Wedgewood made 27 saves.
Canucks 3, Jets 1
Nils Hoglander scored twice to lead visiting Vancouver past slumping Winnipeg. Despite the victory, the Canucks were officially eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention.
Bo Horvat also scored for the Canucks, who were ousted when the Canadiens clinched the final North Division playoff spot. Vancouver goaltender Thatcher Demko made 39 saves.
Kyle Connor scored for the Jets, who are 1-9-0 in their past 10 games. Laurent Brossoit stopped 28 shots.
Stars 5, Blackhawks 4 (OT)
Jason Robertson scored with 29.6 seconds remaining in overtime, John Klingberg tallied three assists and Jamie Benn had two as visiting Dallas erased a late two-goal deficit to defeat Chicago.
In a meeting of teams not going to the playoffs, Dallas outshot Chicago 50-23, eventually breaking through against goaltender Collin Delia, who made 45 saves.
The Blackhawks squandered three two-goal leads. The final instance came midway through the third period, as Dallas’ Joel Kiviranta and Jason Dickinson scored 1:54 apart to tie the game at 4.
–Field Level Media
