Devils capture home-ice advantage
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – The Devils captured home-ice advantage for their first-round playoff series against their New York area archrivals with a 3-2 shootout victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday Zach Parise and Patrik Elias scored in the four-round shootout that the Devils won 2-1 to post their first win over the Rangers in eight tries this season.
The Rangers came into the game knowing they had to win in regulation to get the fourth seed and they failed to do that despite pulling their goalie in the closing 65 seconds of regulation with the score tied 2-all.
John Madden and Mike Rupp scored for the Devils, while Chris Drury and Jaromir Jagr tallied for the Rangers.
Red Wings 4, Blackhawks 1
DETROIT – Nicklas Lidstrom scored twice to lift Detroit to a win over Chicago on the final day of the regular season.
Detroit won 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.
Avalanche 4, Wild 3, SO
DENVER – Wojtek Wolski and Joe Sakic scored shootout goals, Jose Theodore stopped both of Minnesota’s shootout attempts and Colorado beat Minnesota, setting up a first-round playoff matchup between the teams.
Peter Forsberg had three assists and Theodore had 34 saves for the Avalanche, who clinched the No. 6 seed with the win.
Stars 4, Sharks 2
DALLAS – Defenseman Mattias Norstrom’s rare goal put his team ahead for good late in the second period and Dallas rallied to beat San Jose in a physical regular-season finale that included 160 penalty minutes.
Dallas erased a 2-0 deficit on goals by Antti Miettinen, Stu Barnes and Norstrom in the final 10 minutes of the second period. Steve Ott also scored for the Stars.
San Jose, the No. 2 seed, will play seventh-seeded Calgary in the first round of the playoffs.
Dallas faces No. 4 Anaheim.
Blues 4, Blue Jackets 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Keith Tkachuk became the 41st player in NHL history to score 500 goals, and added an assist to help St. Louis beat Columbus.
Tkachuk scored his 27th of the season, a short-handed goal into an empty net, with 1:34 remaining. He scored three goals in the final two regular-season games – both wins against Columbus – to reach the milestone.
David Perron had a power-play goal and an assist, and Brad Boyes and David Backes had the other scores for the Blues.
Michael Peca scored on the man-advantage for Columbus, which closed out the season with one win in its last nine games, but had the best season in franchise history with 80 points.
Copyright Associated Press 2008