Shane Pinto scored twice for the Ottawa Senators, who kept the Montreal Canadiens from clinching a playoff spot with a 5-2 victory on Friday that also snapped a six-game winning streak for the visitors.
The 24-year-old center’s two goals give him 50 for his career. Ridly Greig scored a goal and assisted on Pinto’s first while Dylan Cozens ended a 10-game stretch without a goal. Linus Ullmark earned his sixth win in his past seven starts by turning away 20 shots.
Christian Dvorak and Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal, which got 28 saves from Sam Montembeault but saw his personal five-game winning streak came to an end.
Ottawa fans were already celebrating before the game as the Senators played their first home game since clinching a playoff spot earlier this week. Pinto only added to their jubilation as he scored from the slot on the first shift just 28 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Oilers 4, Sharks 2
Corey Perry broke a tie in the third period, Connor McDavid had four assists and host Edmonton defeated San Jose to clinch a playoff spot for the sixth consecutive season.
Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist and Ty Emberson and Connor Brown also scored for the Oilers. Adam Henrique had two assists and Calvin Pickard made 22 saves. McDavid reached 70 assists for the seventh time in his career, joining Wayne Gretzky (16 times) and Mario Lemieux (eight times) as the only players to accomplish that feat.
Will Smith and Henry Thrun got the goals for the Sharks, who lost their eighth in a row. Georgi Romanov stopped 30 shots.
Flames 4, Wild 2
Calgary provided a huge boost to its slim playoff hopes with a home-ice victory over Minnesota.
Mikael Backlund, Yegor Sharangovich, Nazem Kadri and Ryan Lomberg all scored and Dustin Wolf made 16 saves for the Flames, who improved to 3-0-2 in the past five games. Calgary is three points back of the Wild and St. Louis Blues, who hold the two Western Conference wild-card positions. The Flames have a game in hand.
Yakov Trenin and Gustav Nyquist replied with late goals for Minnesota, which had a two-game winning streak snapped. Wild starting goalie Filip Gustavsson surrendered four goals on 29 shots before being pulled in the final frame. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all three shots he faced in relief.
Red Wings 4, Lightning 3 (OT)
Detroit rookie Marco Kasper netted the tying and winning goals, and the Red Wings stayed alive in the playoff race with a comeback win over host Tampa Bay.
After leveling the score at 3-3 with a goal at 12:59 of the third period, Kasper collected the puck in the neutral zone in OT and sped in from the left side to beat Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy at 3:22.
The Red Wings ended a two-game skid, but their only hope of reaching the postseason is to win their last three games while the Canadiens drop their final three.
Penguins 4, Devils 2
Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal to snap a tie with 6:39 remaining in the third period, fueling Pittsburgh to a victory in Newark, N.J.
Bryan Rust, Crosby and Evgeni Malkin finished with a goal and an assist apiece and Tristan Jarry made 26 saves for the Penguins, who overcame an early two-goal deficit to improve to 4-1-1 in their last six games.
Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula scored for the Devils, and Jake Allen stopped 20 shots. New Jersey has lost two in a row.
–Field Level Media
