Matchups set for NHL playoffs
Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals made the final day of the NHL’s regular season a little anticlimactic Sunday.
Once the Capitals completed their stirring comeback from oblivion to the Southeast Division title Saturday night, all that was left on the last day was some housekeeping and seed switching.
The 16 playoff teams were all decided when the Capitals beat the Florida Panthers at home. That got Washington into the postseason party for the first time since 2003 and eliminated the Carolina Hurricanes, the team that led the Southeast most of the season.
Ovechkin, on the strength of his league-high 65 goals – the most since Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux scored 69 in 1996 – won the NHL scoring title with 112 points.
Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh was blanked along with the rest of his teammates in a 2-0 loss at Philadelphia and finished second with 106 points, including 47 goals.
The only other 50-goal scorers in the league were Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk (52) and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla (50).
Sunday’s games
Red Wings 4, Blackhawks 1: At Detroit, Nicklas Lidstrom scored twice to lift the Red Wings over Chicago.
Detroit wins the Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the team with the NHL’s best record and ensures home ice throughout the playoffs – with 115 points – and faces Nashville in the first round of the playoffs.
Jiri Hudler added a goal and an assist for the Red Wings and Mark Hartigan also scored. Dominik Hasek made 26 saves.
Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom returned after missing 13 games because of a lower abdominal injury.
Patrick Kane got Chicago’s goal and Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 34 shots.
Kane’s power-play goal with 2:20 left ended Hasek’s shutout bid. It was Kane’s 21st goal.
Chicago missed the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 seasons.
Devils 3, Rangers 2 (SO): At Newark, N.J., Zach Parise and Patrik Elias scored in the four-round shootout to lead the Devils to their first win over the Rangers in eight tries this season.
Avalanche 4, Wild 3 (SO): At Denver, Wojtek Wolski and Joe Sakic scored shootout goals, Jose Theodore stopped both of Minnesota’s shootout attempts and Colorado beat the Wild, setting up a first-round playoff matchup between the teams.
Stars 4, Sharks 2: At Dallas, defenseman Mattias Norstrom’s rare goal put his team ahead for good late in the second period as the Stars rallied to beat San Jose in a physical regular-season finale that included 160 penalty minutes.
Flyers 2, Penguins 0: At Philadelphia, Martin Biron stopped 20 shots in his second straight shutout and led the Flyers to a win over Pittsburgh that cost the Penguins the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Blues 4, Blue Jackets 1: At Columbus, Ohio, Keith Tkachuk became the 41st player in NHL history to score 500 goals, and added an assist to help St. Louis beat the Blue Jackets in a finale between teams that missed the playoffs.
Ducks 3, Coyotes 2 (SO): At Anaheim, Calif., Chris Kunitz and Bobby Ryan scored 43 seconds apart in the third period against former teammate Ilya Bryzgalov, and Ryan Getzlaf had the deciding goal in the shootout to lead the Ducks to a victory over Phoenix.