Habs clinch and Pekka Rinne turns back the clock in shutout win

By
Michael Finewax,

By
Michael Finewax

Published May 11, 2021 06:19 PM

The three stars of the week were announced on Monday and to no one’s surprise, Connor McDavid was the first star.

The Edmonton superstar had three goals and 10 assists in four games to give him 100 points in 53 games on the season. His point total for the week would have been good enough to place him in a tie for 377^th in NHL scoring over the whole season out of 899 players who had suited up before Monday’s action.

The second star was rookie Kirill Kaprizov who solidified his hold on the Calder Trophy with an outstanding week. Kaprizov had four goals and eight points in four games to give him 27 goals and 51 points this season.

The third star was Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury who was perfect 2-0 with a 1.48 GAA and a .939 save percentage. Fleury is now third all-time in wins with 491, trailing only Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy. He passed Roberto Luongo with his first win of the week.[[ad:athena]]

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PHILADELPHIA 4 NEW JERSEY 2

Well, at least the Flyers ended the season on a winning note. Joel Farabee scored twice to hit the 20-goal mark and give the Flyers a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.

The Flyers spotted the Devils a two-goal lead in the first period as Pavel Zacha potted his 17^th while Janne Kuokkanen had his eighth.

But Farabee cut the lead in half before the end of the first period with his first of the night.

Sean Couturier tied the game in the second with his 18^th of the season while James van Riemsdyk and Farabee with his second, completed the scoring in the third.

Kevin Hayes, Wade Allison and Claude Giroux all had two assists for the Flyers.

Brian Elliot picked up the win as he turned aside 23 shots.

Scott Wedgewood gave up all four goals for New Jersey on 31 shots.

Justin Braun broke his foot blocking a shot in the first period. Being a hockey player, he still managed to play another shift before calling it a night, and the regular season.

EDMONTON 4 MONTREAL 3 (Overtime)

There was cheering in Montreal even though they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Edmonton Oilers as the one point from the overtime was enough to clinch fourth spot in the North and a date in the playoffs.

The Canadiens became the 16^th and final team to qualify for Lord Stanley’s Cup and by all accounts it looks like they will face the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs when the North Division playoffs begin next week.

Of course, it was Connor McDavid with the overtime winner, his 33^rd goal of the season and with his assist, he has 102 points in 54 games. McDavid has been white-hot of late with 33 points in his last 12 games.

James Neal, Dominik Kahun and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for Edmonton while Artturi Lehkonen and Jake Evans each had a goal and two assists for Montreal. Paul Byron had a goal and an assist as the Canadiens third line did all the scoring.

Mikko Koskinen made 25 saves and ran his record to 13-12-0. Look for Mike Smith to get all the starts in the playoffs, barring an injury or just some bad play.

Jake Allen stopped 31 shots in the overtime loss. He has a 11-12-5 record and is unlikely to play in the playoffs as Carey Price is expected to be fully recovered from his concussion.

Joel Edmundson was a plus-three while fellow blueliner Alexander Romanov was a minus-three.

BOSTON 3 NEW YORK ISLANDERS 2 (Overtime)

Taylor Hall’s overtime winner gave the Boston Bruins a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders and allowed them to clinch third place in the East.

The loss by the Islanders gave them fourth in the East as they will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in one series while the Islanders will face the Washington Capitals in the other.

Hall also opened the scoring with a power play goal as he has been a gem since his trade from Buffalo just before the trade deadline. He has eight goals and 14 points in 16 games with the Bruins after starting the season with only two goals and 19 points in 37 games with the Sabres.

Brad Marchand with his 29^th, also scored for Boston.

Oliver Wahlstrom with a power play goal, and Mathew Barzal scored for the Islanders.

David Krejci assisted on all three goals for Boston.

Tuukka Rask faced only 18 shots and picked up his 15^th win of the season as he is 15-5-2 with a 2.28 GAA and a .913 save percentage.

Ondrej Kase returned to action for the first time since January 16 and promptly suffered an upper-body injury after playing 6:49. He did not return.

Semyon Varlamov stopped 25-of-27 shots in the first two periods but did not come out for the third as he suffered ‘a little strain’ according to coach Barry Trotz. Ilya Sorokin finished up and stopped 10 shots before Hall beat him in overtime.

Cal Clutterbuck had seven hits.

Charlie McAvoy had four penalty minutes, three shots on goal, five hits and four blocked shots.

FLORIDA 4 TAMPA BAY 0

Chris Driedger turned aside all 30 shots to give the Florida Panthers a 4-0 win over their first-round playoff opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The win gave the Panthers second place in the Central as well as home ice advantage over Tampa Bay.

Driedger won his 14^th game of the season and should get consideration to play the opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs as he has outplayed Sergei Bobrovsky all season.

The Panthers welcomed back Carter Verhaeghe who missed a month of action with an upper-body injury. He scored his 18^th of the season and looks to be ready for the playoffs.

MacKenzie Weegar opened the scoring with his sixth of the season in the first period while Juho Lammikko scored his fourth of the season in the second on a shorthanded effort. Alex Wennberg completed the scoring with his 17^th, by far a career-high.

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots in taking the loss. The Lightning goaltender ends the season with a 31-10-1 record.

Radko Gudas had 11 hits while Daniel Walcott, in his first career NHL game, had seven.

The Lightning made history as they started an all-black line for the first time in NHL history as Walcott, Gemel Smith and Mathieu Joseph.

“It was pretty awesome,” Joseph said. “It was great, a step in the right direction. It was fun to have some progress and it was great to see and I was glad I was part of it. We all laughed about it and were pretty happy. Any players of color in this league want to showcase to our families or other people of color. I thank the coaching staff for doing this.”

Kudos to the Lightning!

VANCOUVER 3 WINNIPEG 1

Nils Hoglander scored twice to lead the Vancouver Canucks to a 3-1 win over the slumping Winnipeg Jets.

The Jets are still one point up on the Montreal Canadiens with two games remaining while Montreal still has one game left. The third-place finisher will play Edmonton while Toronto will play the fourth-place team.

The Jets are 1-9-0 in their last 10 games.

Bo Horvat scored his 17^th in the first period and it stood up as the game-winner.

Kyle Connor scored the only goal for the Jets.

Thatcher Demko was terrific in the Canucks cage as he stopped 39-of-40 shots to improve his record to 14-17-1 with a 2.89 GAA and a .914 save percentage.

Laurent Brossoit gave up all three goals on 31 shots and is 6-6-0 with a 2.42 GAA and a .918 save percentage. Look for Connor Hellebuyck to play every game in the playoffs if healthy.

Mark Scheifele and Hoglander each had six shots on goal.

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NASHVILLE 5 CAROLINA 0

Pekka Rinne turned aside all 30 shots to give the Nashville Predators a 5-0 win over their first-round opponents, the Carolina Hurricanes.

Rinne has been the back up goaltender since Juuse Saros returned from injury and became the starter but the 38-year-old turned back the clock and was perfect on the night for his 60^th career shutout and 369^th win, tying him with Tom Barrasso for 19^th all-time on the NHL win list.

Matt Duchene scored twice to give him six on the season. Tanner Jeannot and Ryan Johansen each had a goal and an assist with Jeannot’s goal coming shorthanded while Johansen’s was on the power play.

Rocco Grimaldi also scored shorthanded as the Predators special teams were full value for the win.

Petr Mrazek gave up all five goals on 27 shots in taking the loss. He is 6-2-3 this season with a 2.06 GAA and a .923 save percentage.

Jordan Martinook had seven hits.

Max McCormick and Tyler Lewington fought each other in the first period and both ended up with seven penalty minutes.

DALLAS 5 CHICAGO 4 (Overtime)

Rookie Jason Robertson completed a great rookie season with the overtime winner as Dallas came back from a 4-2 deficit with less than 10 minutes to go in the third and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in overtime.

Miro Heiskanen had a goal and an assist while Joe Pavelski, Jason Dickinson and Joel Kiviranta also scored for the Stars.

Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome. Pius Suter and Vinnie Hinostroza all had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks.

DeBrincat had a great comeback season after scoring 18 and adding 27 assists in 70 games in 2019-20. The diminutive winger ended his season with 32 goals and 56 points in just 52 games.

Patrick Kane was held off the scoresheet Monday.

Jake Oettinger made only 19 saves but that was still good enough to pick up his 11^th win of the season.

John Klingberg had three assists with Jamie Benn picking up two.

Collin Delia faced 50 shots and made 45 saves but took the overtime loss. He ends the season with a 1-3-1 record.

Mike Hardman had eight hits.

ST. LOUIS 2 LOS ANGELES 1 (Overtime)

Justin Faulk set up Tyler Bozak in the third period and then scored the overtime winner as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-1.

Faulk has had a bit of a comeback season with seven goals and 23 points this season.

Alex Iafallo, with his 13^th, scored the only goal for the Kings.

Jordan Binnington turned aside 26 shots for his 17^th win of the season. The Blues will need him to be at his best like he was in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, if they hope to beat either Colorado or Vegas in the first round of the post-season.

Cal Petersen made 17 saves in taking the overtime loss as Faulk beat him at the 46 second mark of the extra frame.

COLORADO 2 VEGAS 1

The Colorado Avalanche kept their hopes of finishing first in the West alive with a 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Avs are two back with two to play and have their fate in their own hands as if that are able to sweep the Los Angeles Kings Wednesday and Thursday, they will finish first in the West and take on the St. Louis Blues.

Philipp Grubauer was outstanding in goal for the Avalanche as he stopped 36-of-37 shots to raise his record to 29-9-1. He has a 2.00 GAA and a .921 save percentage.

Andre Burakovsky with his 18^th and J.T. Compher with his seventh scored for Colorado.

Alex Pietrangelo opened the scoring with his sixth of the season.

The Golden Knights did not alter their goaltending and Robin Lehner got the start, stopping 19-of-21 shots to go to 13-4-2 this season.

NIGHTLY LEADERS

Goals

Joel Farabee – 2

Taylor Hall – 2

Nils Hoglander – 2

Matt Duchene - 2

Assists

David Krejci – 3

John Klingberg – 3