Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner will have season-ending knee surgery, ESPN reported Friday.

Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer, however, disputed the report when asked by beat reporters why Lehner was not in attendance on Friday.

“Not to my knowledge. It was a maintenance day today,” DeBoer said. “I expect him at practice tomorrow. I expect him dressed on Sunday.”

Lehner sustained the injury on March 8 at Philadelphia and was placed on injured reserve six days later.

He returned to action on April 3 and started Wednesday’s game against the Washington Capitals. He was pulled after stopping 12 of 13 shots in the first period.

Lehner, 30, finishes with a 23-17-2 record with one shutout, a 2.83 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in 44 starts.

With four regular-season games left, Vegas (42-31-5, 89 points) trails the Dallas Stars by two points for the second wild-card slot in the Western Conference.

Lehner is 152-141-49 with 17 shutouts, a 2.71 GAA and a .917 save percentage in 364 career games (345 starts) with the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks and Golden Knights.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Bruins will look to avoid a season series sweep when they host the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.

Boston (47-25-5, 99 points) enters the third and final regular-season meeting with its Original Six rivals having lost four of six following Thursday’s 4-0 setback in Pittsburgh.

The Bruins were shut out for the first time in franchise history when taking at least 50 shots on goal. New Hampshire native Casey DeSmith made a career-high 52 stops en route to his third shutout of the season for Pittsburgh.

Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves before falling for just the seventh time in his last 21 decisions (14-6-1). But, Jason Zucker’s goal felt like a backbreaker after the Bruins had registered the first 10 shots of the second period.

“I think when we needed a timely save tonight, we didn’t get it,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, we didn’t finish any plays either. … That’s the save you need in this type of game and we didn’t get it. From there I thought we pushed a little bit, but that’s a game-changing moment. Give their guy credit. He made a lot of good stops.”

Brad Marchand had a game-high eight shots on goal for Boston.

The Bruins had previously won back-to-back games. They defeated the Penguins, 2-1, last Saturday before leaving St. Louis with a 3-2 triumph on Tuesday, thanks to defenseman Charlie McAvoy’s overtime goal.

“We’ve got to finish better,” Cassidy said. “We’ve been struggling to score the last little bit. We got away with it the last few games because we played well defensively and got the saves. (Thursday), we didn’t.”

Though Thursday marked its first time being shut out since Feb. 10 against Carolina, Boston hasn’t scored more than three goals in any of its last nine games. That coincides with an 0-for-29 drought on the power play.

“I have the puck a lot, obviously, and just the way teams are setting up, so we were working on finding where things were open and how to attack from there,” Marchand said.

The Rangers (51-21-6, 108 points) enter their second visit to Boston on the strength of a four-game winning streak.

The first three wins came in shutout fashion before that streak ended during Thursday’s 6-3 victory at the New York Islanders. That win officially gave the Rangers home-ice advantage to start the playoffs.

“I’m happy with the way we played the last number of games because there are some games we’ve played teams that were out of the playoffs and we still kept focusing on our game and playing the right way,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “I like winning, but I’m more happy with the way we’re playing, definitely.”

Andrew Copp, who was acquired from Winnipeg last month, scored a first-period natural hat trick before exiting late in the third with a lower-body injury.

Artemi Panarin logged his 20th multi-assist game this season and extended his point streak to four games after setting up four goals. Former Harvard defenseman Adam Fox dished out three in his 200th NHL game.

Chris Kreider scored his 51st goal and league-leading 26th on the power play.

–Field Level Media

On Thursday night, the New York Islanders looked like a team feeling the effects of an unrelentingly difficult season.

On Saturday afternoon, Islanders head coach Barry Trotz will be out to see if his harsh words following a disappointing effort had any effect on the listless team.

A pair of Eastern Conference teams playing out the string are slated to oppose each other for the final time Saturday, when the Islanders visit the Buffalo Sabres.

Both teams were off Friday after playing Thursday, when the host Islanders fell to the New York Rangers 6-3 and the visiting Sabres earned their third straight win with a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

The loss was the third straight for the Islanders (35-32-10, 80 points), who are down to the final five games in a season they’ll hope to never experience again. In addition to the on-ice disappointment, the club has mourned the deaths of three franchise icons — Clark Gillies, Jean Potvin and Mike Bossy, the latter of whom died April 15.

The Islanders went as far as the Stanley Cup semifinals in each of the last two seasons, but their hopes of reaching the Stanley Cup Finals are long gone. The last time the team was there was in 1984 when Gillies and Bossy led the charge.

This season’s hopes essentially crashed during an early-season 11-game losing streak when a COVID-19 outbreak tore through the locker room. Another outbreak has returned with club announcing just before faceoff Thursday that center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, associate coach Lane Lambert and assistant coach Jim Hiller were placed into protocol.

The Islanders’ last three losses have come against the Rangers, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs, all of whom will be among the favorites to emerge as the Eastern Conference’s representative in the Stanley Cup Finals.

After Saturday, the four remaining games will be against three more Eastern Conference playoff teams – the Carolina Hurricanes, Washington Capitals (two games) and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay. The Lightning eliminated New York the last two summers.

But Trotz didn’t think the caliber of competition had much to do with the lopsided loss Thursday, when the Rangers’ Andrew Copp produced a natural hat trick barely 18 minutes into the game.

“It is a game of mistakes, but if you make a mistake, you have to have the urgency and the desire to clean up your own mistakes,” Trotz said. “If you’re going to create some garbage on the ice, then you better clean it up, and we didn’t do a good job.”

The Sabres (30-38-11, 71 points) are going to extend their NHL-long playoff drought to 11 seasons, but a late run has provided hope they’re finally beginning a long-awaited turnaround. Buffalo has gone 12-6-3 since March 10.

The Sabres have maintained a third-period lead in each of their last three wins. The Devils closed within 3-2 early in the third Thursday before Owen Power and Jeff Skinner scored to put away the victory.

“I loved our third period because we give up a goal, the first goal of the period, and then the game tightens up and we were pushing each other,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “Everybody collectively, we just said ‘Let’s go. Let’s get another. Let’s go after them. We’re not going to sit on a one-goal lead.'”

–Field Level Media