The Washington Capitals secured the top seed in the NHL Eastern Conference play-offs with a 4-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.
Mike Richards, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom put the Caps 3-0 up after the first period and though Chris Widemand and Mika Zibanejad pulled goals back, TJ Oshie swept into an empty net late on to make the game safe.
Victory took Washington 19 points clear of the New York Rangers, who have only nine games remaining starting with Wednesday’s clash against the Boston Bruins.
Elsewhere in the East
• While Washington have won the Metropolitan Division, the Tampa Bay Lightning returned to the top of a very tight Atlantic Division with a 6-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Erik Condra book-ended the scoring as Tampa moved level on points with the Florida Panthers, who lost to the New York Rangers on Monday.
• The Philadelphia Flyers remain in the wild-card picture but lost 3-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets after a shootout decided by Boone Jenner’s goal. Philly have 13 overtime wins this season - only the Carolina Hurricanes, with 14, have more - but are 2-8 in shootouts.
• Wednesday sees the New York Rangers, second in the Metropolitan Division, face the Boston Bruins, third in the Atlantic, while the New York Islanders face the Senators.
Western play-off picture
• In the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars clinched a play-off spot with a 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Vernon Fiddler scored two of the Stars’ four unanswered goals in the first period to help them move out of range of the Colorado Avalanche and guarantee one of the eight post-season berths.
• The Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks failed to clinch play-off places as they lost to the Montreal Canadiens and St Louis Blues respectively.
Jakob Silfverberg’s double was in vain as Mike Brown scored a goal and added an assist on Lucas Lessio’s game-winner in Montreal’s 4-3 win - keeping Anaheim to 89 points and notionally within range of the Pacific Division’s fourth-placed team, the Arizona Coyotes, who beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2.
The Sharks had 37 shots and a late power play before pulling goalie Martin Jones but were still shut out by Brian Elliott and the Blues, who won 1-0 on Robby Fabbri’s goal midway through the third period. San Jose are a point behind Anaheim.
• Division leaders the Los Angeles Kings also lost, 2-1 to the Minnesota Wild who stayed ahead of Colorado in the wild-card chase. Mikko Koivu’s power-play goal proved decisive.
• The Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 2-0 and the Buffalo Sabres won 3-2 against the Hurricanes.
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