Dany Heatley scored his 50th goal in the third period to help Ottawa to a 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night that gave the Senators the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The loss knocked the Rangers out of first place in the Atlantic Division on the final day of the regular season. They wound up sixth in the East and will play division champion New Jersey in the first round of the playoffs.
Heatley, in his first season with the Senators, reached the 50-goal mark for the first time and extended his Ottawa single-season record. Andrej Meszaros and Mike Fisher also scored third-period goals to break open a tight game.
PHOTO: EPA
Ottawa leapfrogged Carolina, which lost 4-0 at home to Buffalo, to grab first place in the East. The Senators will play defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay in the opening round.
The Rangers, who led the Atlantic for most of this season, were passed by Philadelphia and New Jersey. The Rangers dropped their season-high fifth straight in regulation and will have to start their first postseason appearance since 1997 on the road. New York was trying to win its first division title since its Stanley Cup-winning season of 1993-1994.
Devils 4, Canadiens 3
At Montreal, Jamie Langenbrunner capped a stunning third-period comeback that earned the Devils the Atlantic Division title with their 11th straight victory.
Brian Gionta had three points, including his franchise-record 47th and 48th goals, then Langenbrunner scored with 2:23 to go in regulation. The Devils, who were battling for one of the last playoff positions a month ago, won their sixth division championship in nine seasons in spectacular fashion.
New Jersey last lost 4-3 in Toronto on March 26.
The Devils finished with 101 points, the same as Philadelphia, but won the division with more victories. They will play the New York Rangers in the playoffs; the Rangers wound up with 100 points.
Montreal, which topped its own league attendance record, finished seventh overall with 95 points after clinching a playoff spot the night before when Atlanta lost. The Canadiens play at Carolina to begin the playoffs.
Flyers 4, Islanders 1
Uniondale, New York, Jeff Carter put Philadelphia into fifth place in the overall Eastern Conference standings, beating Garth Snow on a breakaway with 7:22 left. The Flyers will open the playoffs at Buffalo.
On the winning goal, Carter picked up the puck near the blue line, skated in alone on Snow and beat him with a backhander for his 23rd goal.
R.J. Umberger had a goal and an assist, Simon Gagne and Michal Handzus added empty-net goals, and Robert Esche made 31 saves for the Flyers, headed to playoffs for the 11th straight season. Gagne finished the season with 47 goals.
Defenseman Bruno Gervais scored for the Islanders, out of postseason play for the first time since 2000-2001. New York finished 12th in the 15-team conference.
Sabres 4, Hurricanes 0
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Chris Drury scored to reach 30 goals for the first time in his NHL career, Martin Biron got his first shutout of the season and Buffalo dropped the Hurricanes out of the top spot in the East.
J.P. Dumont had two goals and Brian Campbell added another for the Sabres, who completed their regular season with five straight victories.
They will be the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and play Philadelphia.
The Hurricanes are headed the other way, losing for the fourth time in the final five games to settle for second in the East. Goaltender Martin Gerber hardly has been sharp down the stretch and gave up at least three goals for the seventh straight time.
Carolina will play Montreal in the playoffs.
Panthers 2, Thrashers 1
At Sunrise, Florida, Mike Van Ryn's overtime goal, his second score of the game, lifted the Panthers. Van Ryn took a pass from Joe Nieuwendyk in the left circle and his slap shot went over the shoulder of Adam Berkhoel at 1:34 of overtime.
Roberto Luongo had 39 saves for the Panthers. About a minute before Van Ryn's goal, Luongo snagged the puck with his glove on a shot fired by Vyacheslav Kozlov from the right circle.
Steve McCarthy scored and Berkhoel made 27 saves for Atlanta.
Maple Leafs 5, Penguins 3
At Toronto, Mats Sundin scored two goals and added two assists to finish his best offensive season since 2002. The 35-year-old Sundin finished with 78 points (31 goals and 47 assists) in 70 games, his best since he got 80 points in 82 games in 2001-2002. Not bad for a guy who missed a dozen games at the start of the season after fracturing the orbital bone over his left eye.
Darcy Tucker added his 28th goal, a career high, for the Maple Leafs, who finished the season ninth in the Eastern Conference with 90 points. Jeremy Williams scored his first NHL goal in his first game.
Sidney Crosby scored his 39th goal and added an assist to give him 102 points in a sensational rookie season for the Penguins, who finished last in the East.
Blue Jackets 5, Stars 4, OT
At Columbus, Ohio, Sergei Fedorov's 14th career overtime goal, 35 seconds into the extra period gave Columbus a victory over Dallas. Fedorov tied Mats Sundin's NHL record for overtime goals.
Dallas, playing a skeleton lineup while resting many of its top players for the playoffs, got goals from Niko Kapanen, Steve Ott and Niklas Hagman in a span of 3:36 early in the third period to take a 4-3 lead.
Mark Hartigan's one-timer from the point with 56.6 seconds left tied it for the Blue Jackets.
Capitals 4, Lightning 1
At Tampa, Florida, Jeff Halpern scored twice and goalie Brent Johnson stopped 42 shots.
The Capitals finished their season with a three-game winning streak that included a win over Atlanta that eliminated the Thrashers from postseason contention and clinched a berth for Tampa Bay.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning are seeded eighth in the Eastern Conference and will face top-seeded Ottawa, which won all four regular season meetings between the teams and is 17-2-1 against Tampa Bay over the past five seasons.
Washington's Alex Ovechkin got his 54th assist of the season on Halpern's first goal to finish with 106 points -- the third-highest total by a rookie in NHL history. He also had 52 goals, third all-time for a first-year player.
Predators 6, Red Wings 3
At Nashville, Tennessee, Paul Kariya's first goal was denied by video review, but he scored three more that counted for his ninth career hat trick, and the Predators snapped the Red Wings' 20-game points streak.
The Red Wings, with the Presidents Cup already in hand, hadn't lost in regulation since March 7 when they fell 5-2 to Phoenix. They came into the regular-season finale with a chance to match the 1979-1980 Montreal Canadiens' streak of at least one point in 21 straight games.
But the Predators finished with the NHL's best home record at 32-8-1 by downing the league's best road team with their first victory over Detroit at home this season, evening the season series at 4-4 between the teams.
Nashville, which opens the playoffs on Friday night hosting San Jose, won its sixth straight with goalie Chris Mason.
The Red Wings open against Edmonton.
Fredrik Eriksson, Jorgen Jonsson and Jonas Hoglund all scored in the first 13 minutes and Farjestad beat Frolunda 5-3 on Tuesday to win its first Swedish Elite League ice hockey title since 2002.
Frolunda won the championship series four-games-to-two and ended three consecutive years of frustration of reaching the finals before losing, including last year's defeat to Frolunda.
"To win at home after waiting for this long is hard to beat," said Jonsson, who was part of the Swedish team that won the Olympic title in Turin in February.
For Fajestad, which had reached the finals for six straight years, it was its seventh Swedish title and fourth in 10 seasons.
Eriksson gave Farjestad the lead after 1:44, deflecting a shot past former NHL all-star Tommy Salo. Jonsson added a power-play goal seven minutes later and Hoglund increased the lead at 13:13 of the first period.
Eriksson added a second goal on a power play late in the second and Matthias Johansson converted another power play midway through the third to give Farjestad a 5-1 lead before Frolunda attempted to rally.
Salo, who spent 10 seasons in the NHL, came out of retirement to play for Frolunda this season, replacing Henrik Lundqvist, who posted three shutouts in last year's finals.
It was the third time in the last four years that the two teams met in the finals. Frolunda beat Farjestad 4-0 in the 2003 finals.
The Los Angeles Kings fired general manager Dave Taylor, a team official said on Tuesday.
The Kings will ask Taylor to remain with the team in another capacity, an official told AP on condition on anonymity because the move had not yet been made public.
The 50-year-old Taylor was fired after the Kings played poorly in the latter part of the NHL regular season and fell out of playoff contention for the second year in a row.
Coach Andy Murray was fired last month when the Kings had a 37-5-28 record and were tied for seventh -- and a playoff spot -- in the Western Conference.
John Torchetti became the interim coach, but the Kings still stumbled and finished with a 42-5-35 record, next to last in the Pacific Division.
Taylor was Los Angeles' GM for nine years. The Kings made the playoffs four times during his tenure, but they advanced beyond the first round just once. They've never won the Stanley Cup.
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