Capitals spoil Rangers' chance to clinch 1st overall: NHL roundup

Capitals 4, Rangers 1 

NEW YORK — Washington scored three first-period goals and third-string goaltender Braden Holtby made 35 saves Saturday night to help the Capitals beat the Rangers 4-1, spoiling New York's chance to clinch the Presidents' Trophy.

The Rangers (51-24-7) finished with 109 points for the third time in franchise history and remain tied with Vancouver for the league's top spot. The Canucks host Edmonton later Saturday.

Washington (42-32-8) has 92 points and will be the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference if Florida earns at least a point against Carolina. Washington would open the playoffs in Boston, while the Rangers host Ottawa in the first round.

Penguins 4, Flyers 2

PITTSBURGH — Evgeni Malkin scored his 50th goal of the season and added an assist to lock up his second NHL scoring title and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Saturday.

Malkin finished the regular season with 109 points and became the ninth player in Penguins history to reach the 50-goal mark when his wrist shot with 12 seconds left in the second period beat Philadelphia's Sergei Bobrovsky to give Pittsburgh a two-goal lead.

Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also scored for the Penguins, who knocked off the Flyers for the first time at Consol Energy Center. Brent Johnson stopped five shots in relief of Marc-Andre Fleury to get the win.

Brayden Schenn and Jaromir Jagr scored for the Flyers, who rested leading scorer Claude Giroux in the regular season finale in preparation for their first-round matchup with Pittsburgh starting next week.

Bruins 4, Sabres 3 

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had three assists in regulation and the game-winner in the shootout on Saturday to lead the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins into the post-season with a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres had already been eliminated from the playoff race.

Tyler Seguin scored twice, and Brad Marchand also had a goal for the Bruins, who had already clinched the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. They will open the playoffs next week against either Ottawa or Washington.

Brad Boyes scored twice for the Sabres, who finished with 88 points — two behind the Capitals, who had one game to play.

Tim Thomas stopped 25 shots for the Bruins.

Jhonas Enroth made 37 saves for Buffalo.

Blue Jackets 7, Islanders 3 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cam Atkinson scored two goals — giving him five in five periods — to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 7-3 victory on Saturday over the New York Islanders in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Rick Nash opened the scoring in what could be his final game for the Blue Jackets. He has asked for a trade and management has said it will try to deal him this summer.

James Wisniewski and Vinny Prospal each added a goal and two assists and R.J. Umberger and Jack Johnson also scored. Steve Mason made 35 saves. Atkinson also had an assist.

Milan Jurcina and Michael Grabner each had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, with Kyle Okposo also scored.

Coyotes 4, Wild 1 

MINNEAPOLIS — Taylor Pyatt scored two goals and Mike Smith made 23 saves to help the Phoenix Coyotes clinch the first division championship in franchise history with a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

Mikkel Boedker and Radim Vrbata also scored and Michal Rozsival added two assists for the Coyotes (42-27-13), who won the final five games of the regular season to leapfrog Los Angeles and San Jose for the Pacific Division title. The Coyotes had never won a division dating back to their inception as the Winnipeg Jets in 1979-80.

Dany Heatley scored for the Wild, who will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Niklas Backstrom had a rough night with 24 saves on 28 shots.

The Coyotes will play sixth-seeded Chicago in the first round.

Blues 3, Stars 2

DALLAS — Alex Steen and David Perron scored power-play goals, Jaroslav Halek stopped 33 shots, and the playoff-bound St. Louis Blues beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Saturday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Kris Russell added an even-strength goal for the Central Division-champion Blues, who snapped a season-worst four-game losing streak (0-2-2) to finish with 109 points -- the most since they had 114 in 1999-2000.

St. Louis will await the results of the Edmonton-Vancouver and Los Angeles-San Jose games to learn whether it will earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. The Canucks came into Saturday's games with 109 points and will win the Presidents' Trophy with a win over the Oilers.

Rookies Ryan Garbutt and Philip Larsen scored in the game's final six minutes for the Stars.

Predators 6, Avalanche 1 

DENVER — Backup Anders Lindback stopped 34 shots before leaving early in the final period after a collision and Patric Hornqvist scored his team-leading 27th goal to lift the playoff-bound Nashville Predators to a 6-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.

David Legwand, Craig Smith, Roman Josi, Brandon Yip and Matt Halischuk also had goals for Nashville, which clinched the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference before the game when Central Division rival Detroit lost to Chicago in a shootout. The Predators open the playoffs next week by hosting the Red Wings.

Matt Duchene scored the lone goal for an Avalanche team that struggled down the stretch and missed the playoffs for a second straight season.