MONTREAL (AP) — Kaiden Guhle scored twice and the Montreal Canadiens wrapped up the last Eastern Conference playoff spot with a 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night in their regular-season finale.
The Canadiens needed at least a point to eliminate Columbus from playoff contention. They will face Washington in the first round.
Nick Suzuki broke a tie late in the second period with his 30th goal and also had an assist, Jake Evans had an empty-net goal, and Sam Montembeault made 27 saves to help Montreal finish 40-31-11 and reach the playoffs for the first since 2021.
Taylor Hall and Tyson Jost scored for Carolina, and Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 17 shots. Playoff-bound Carolina rested several key players. The Hurricanes will face New Jersey in the first round.
JETS 2, DUCKS 1, OT
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Mark Scheifele scored at 1:11 of overtime to give Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg a victory over Anaheim in their regular-season finale.
The Jets finished at 56-22-4 to set a franchise record with 116 points.
Connor Hellebuyck made 30 saves for Winnipeg in his 47th victory, the most in franchise history, and the Jets wrapped up the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals against.
RED WINGS 5, DEVILS 2
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin scored and added an assist and Alex Lyon made 28 saves as Detroit downed New Jersey.
Jonatan Berggren, J.T. Compher, Alex DeBrincat and Marco Kasper also scored for the Red Wings who won their third straight. Detroit will miss the playoffs for a ninth straight season.
The Devils finished with 42 wins and 91 points for third place in the Metropolitan Division. New Jersey will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.
Larkin increased the lead to 3-0 with his 30th goal at 2:55 of the third. Simon Edvinsson, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond each had two assists for Detroit.
PREDATORS 5, STARS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and two assists and Nashville closed their disappointing season with a victory over playoff-bound Dallas.
Jordan Oesterle and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and an assist, and Jakub Vrana and Justin Barron also scored for Nashville. Juuse Saros made 29 saves, and Filip Forsberg had two assists.
Mason Marchment scored and Jake Oettinger made 17 saves in the first two periods for the Stars, who concluded the regular season on an 0-5-2 slide after not losing more than two straight this season prior to the current stretch. Oettinger was replaced by Casey DeSmith to start the third. DeSmith made 12 saves.
The Stars will face the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, CANUCKS 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Pavel Dorofeyev broke a tie at 7:59 of the third period with his 35th goal and Vegas beat Vancouver in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Jack Eichel — making in the lineup after missing four games because of an upper-body injury, followed Dorofeyev’s goal with his 28th with 9:15 left.
Victor Olofsson tied it at 1 ith 1:27 left in the second, and also had an assist, Cole Schwindt scored an empty-netter for his NHL goal, and defenseman Ben Hutton had two assists. Akira Schmid, making his fifth appearance of the season, stopped 16 shots.
Vegas won the Pacific Division and finished second in the Western Conference at 50-22-10. The Knights will face the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs.
OILERS 3, SHARKS 0
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Ty Emberson had a goal and an assist, Stuart Skinner stopped 18 shots, and Edmonton completed a four-game season series sweep of San Jose with a victory in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Max Jones and Corey Perry also scored goals while Connor McDavid had an assist on Emberson’s goal for his 100th point of the season.
McDavid hit the 100-point plateau for a fifth straight season and for the eighth time in his career, becoming the fourth player in NHL history to do so. Wayne Gretzky (15 times), Mario Lemieux (10) and Marcel Dionne (8) are the others.
Alexandar Georgiev had 25 saves for San Jose, which lost its 11th straight (0-8-3).
The Associated Press
