Tierschutz aktuell /Nachrichten » and AP freelancer W.G

Craig Smith scored twice and Ryan Johansen had the go-ahead goal late in the third period to help the Nashville Predators beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 Thursday night to clinch first place in the Central Division Authentic Mike Remmers Jersey , the top seed in the Western Conference and the best record in the NHL.

Even though it’ll be Pekka Rinne in net for the Predators when they open the playoffs next week, backup Juuse Saros stopped 28 of the 31 shots and captain Roman Josi scored on the power play to give them their first division title in 19 seasons of existence.

Nashville has a franchise-record 52 victories and will open the playoffs against the second wild card in the West as it tries to return to the Stanley Cup Final. The Predators clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s top record when Boston lost to Florida 3-2 later Thursday. Nashville watched from the arena as the Panthers scored late in the third period to top the Bruins.

Evgeny Kuznetsov scored twice and Alex Ovechkin added his NHL-leading 47th goal of the season for the Metropolitan-champion Capitals, who have nothing left to play for and could still face any of a handful of teams in the first round. Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves and strengthened his case to be Washington’s Game 1 playoff starter over 2016 Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby.

CANUCKS 4, COYOTES 3, OT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Daniel Sedin scored on a power play 2:33 into overtime with his brother Henrik Sedin earning an assist in their final home game before retiring after 17 seasons with Vancouver.

The twins were mobbed by teammates after the goal. Fans were on their feet the minute the Sedins went over the boards after Arizona’s Richard Panik was called for hooking. The goal came when Henrik passed back to Daniel, who blasted a shot from the blue line.

After the game, the two brothers slowly skated around the ice at Rogers Arena, waving at the fans.

The brothers had combined for a goal earlier in the game, with Daniel scoring and Henrik assisting again.

Christian Fischer, Derek Stepan and Dylan Strome scored for Arizona.

Jake Virtanen and Brendan Leipsic got the other goals for the Canucks. Both teams will miss the playoffs.

DEVILS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – The New Jersey Devils are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

Patrick Maroon set up second-period goals by Pavel Zacha and Miles Wood and the Devils ended a five-year postseason drought with the victory over Toronto.

Keith Kinkaid, the mainstay in goal since the end of January, made 31 saves as the Devils won their fourth straight and extended their points streak to eight games (7-0-1). He preserved the lead with a stop in close on Austin Matthews with just over seven minutes to play.

New Jersey is 10-2-1 in its last 13 in going from the worst team in the Eastern Conference a year ago to one that will get a chance to start playing for the Stanley Cup next week. After it was over, the players went to center ice and saluted the fans who were standing for much of the final minute.

William Nylander scored on a power play in the first period for Toronto to ice his second straight 20-goal season. Frederik Anderson was outstanding, making 37 saves, including saves on breakaways by Taylor Hall and Michael Grabner in the big second period.

The loss was only the fourth in 13 games (9-3) for the Maple Leafs.

KINGS 5 Archie Bradley Jersey , WILD 4, OT

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dustin Brown scored his fourth goal of the game 23 seconds into overtime and Los Angeles moved into third place in the Pacific Division.

Brown scored on a sharp-angle shot from the left circle to put the Kings one point ahead of Anaheim in the division. He set a career high with his 61st point.

Tobias Rieder also scored, and Daniel Brickley had an assist for his first point in his NHL debut. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings’ fourth win in five games.

Matt Dumba scored for the second straight game, and Nate Prosser had a short-handed goal for the Wild, who will play Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs. Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal each had a goal, and Alex Stalock made 23 saves.

FLYERS 4, HURRICANES 3

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Jakub Voracek scored with 5:45 left to lift Philadelphia past Carolina.

Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov and Michael Raffl also scored for Philadelphia. The Flyers would have clinched a playoff spot if Boston beat Florida, but the Panthers topped the Bruins 3-2.

The Flyers seemed in great shape when Giroux put them up 3-2 with 9:42 remaining behind a wrist shot that beat goalie Scott Darling. It extended the Flyers captain’s career-high totals to 31 goals and 98 points. The Hurricanes erased the lead when Brian Elliott let in his second soft goal of the game, this one Jordan Staal’s backhander from a sharp angle near the side boards with 6:19 left.

Elliott returned after missing 25 games following core muscle surgery Feb. 13.

Klas Dahlbeck and Sebastian Aho also scored for Carolina.

PANTHERS 3, BRUINS 2

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – Jared McCann scored with 5:37 left and Roberto Luongo got the win in his 1,000th career game, helping Florida beat Boston to stay in playoff contention.

The Panthers trail Philadelphia by four points for the final Eastern Conference wild card and have two games remaining, including a matchup Sunday night with Boston. Florida needs to win both games and have the Flyers lose to the New York Rangers in regulation Saturday.

The 39-year-old Luongo became the third goalie to reach the 1,000-game mark, joining Hall of Famers Martin Brodeur (1,266) and Patrick Roy (1 Jamal Adams Jersey ,029). He stopped 26 shots Thursday.

Aleksander Barkov sc The Washington Capitals have never used more rookies during a single postseason than the half-dozen who helped Alex Ovechkin and Co. reach the Eastern Conference final.

They’re contributing in various ways, including with secondary scoring and a freedom from the past playoff failures that became a burden for Capitals veterans.

”Man, they gave us a big boost with their energy and enthusiasm,” said Matt Niskanen, a defenseman in his 11th NHL season. ”It’s infectious.”

It’s part of a league-wide trend, too: The 50 rookie skaters in these playoffs are the most since teams used 54 in 2005-06. That could be a reflection of teams having greater trust in young players arriving from junior hockey or college, or the need to stock rosters with cheap talent as a greater percentage of the salary cap is devoted to the elite.

”The way you build your hockey teams, those kids get a chance to play all season long. They get put in positions where they can succeed,” Vegas Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. ”Over the last 10 or 15 years, they’re more prepared.”

The Capitals advanced to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a series beginning Friday night by using five rookies during a clinching 2-1 overtime victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. One of the fresh faces, Nathan Walker, assisted on a goal.

In Washington’s Game 5 win over Pittsburgh, another rookie, right wing Jakub Vrana, was bumped from the third line to the top one and delivered an assist on the tying score before putting the go-ahead goal in the net. And to think: Vrana played a tad under seven minutes in Washington’s opening playoff game, then was a healthy scratch for the second. Played every game since, though.

”I got an opportunity and I was ready,” said Vrana Joseph Noteboom Jersey Elite , a 22-year-old from the Czech Republic. ”I didn’t get a whole lot of minutes at the beginning, but even if I get eight minutes, I still go out there and do my best and try to make those eight minutes count.”

Similarly, defenseman Christian Djoos sat out Washington’s first two games but played in the other 10.

Vrana and Djoos were expected to appear in Game 1 at Tampa Bay, perhaps joined by forwards Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd, who skated together on the third line at practice Wednesday. Walker and another rookie who faced Pittsburgh, Shane Gersich, are also part of the group that matched the franchise record of six playoff rookies set in 1989-90.

”There’s two kinds of things that happen with young guys. They’re naive and just play and have a lot of fun and it doesn’t bother `em. … There’s other ones that get the starry-eyed, saucer-eyed (look) and they have to sort of work through that,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”Early in the Columbus series, (Vrana) had a little bit of those saucer eyes. And then he sort of grew out of it.”

The Lightning’s trio of rookies combined for 12 playoff points through two rounds: Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. Cirelli has played a key defensive center role after getting into just 18 regular-season games.

There are fewer youngsters in the Western Conference final.

Alex Tuch, who turned 22 on Thursday, has four goals and three assists as the sole postseason rookie for the Golden Knights. Their opponent, Winnipeg, has three rookies, but only one has logged regular playing time – left wing Kyle Connor broke out with two goals and an assist in Game 5 of the second round against Nashville, then had two assists in the Jets’ 5-1 victory over the Predators in Game 7 on Thursday night.

Back in 2013-14 Chad Thomas Jersey Elite , his first full season as an NHL coach, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper used nine rookies in the playoffs, a total no team has eclipsed since.

That Lightning club was swept in the first round.

”I don’t think we were necessarily prepared for it,” said Tyler Johnson, one of four members of that precocious crop who also has appeared in the playoffs for Tampa Bay this time around. ”We didn’t know what to expect.”

That’s the thing about newcomers, of course. They don’t know how they’ll react to being in the faster, more physical, higher-quality, higher-pressure playoffs.

Nor do coaches or teammates.

”There’s a little bit of the enthusiasm of the youth, something about the young guys. They’ve always got the smile on. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they’re naive,” Trotz said. ”Sometimes they just sort of need a little bit of tightening from their peers or their coach.”

—

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno, AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, and AP freelancer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

—

.