Chris Mason made 28 saves for his sixth shutout of the season, helping the St Louis Blues take the sixth playoff spot in the Western Conference with a 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday in the regular-season finale.
In the playoffs for the first time in five years, the Blues — with nine wins in their final 11 games, will face Vancouver in the opening round.
Brad Boyes scored the only goal of the game early in the first period.
PHOTO: AP
RANGERS 4, FLYERS 3
At Philadelphia, Sean Avery and Blair Betts scored third-period goals to lift New York, spoiling Philadelphia’s shot at home-ice advantage against Pittsburgh in its opening playoff series.
Brandon Dubinsky scored two goals for the Rangers, set to open the playoffs against Southeast Division champion Washington.
Dubinsky’s second goal was short-handed, wrecking Philadelphia’s shot at becoming the first team in NHL history to play an entire season without allowing one. The Flyers’ streak of 103 games without surrendering a short-handed goal was the longest since Montreal went 122 games from March 1975 to November 1976.
Jeff Carter scored his 46th goal to finish second behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (56) for the NHL lead. Danny Briere and Claude Giroux also scored.
BLACKHAWKS 3, RED WINGS 0
At Chicago, Nikolai Khabibulin made 37 saves for his 41st career shutout as the Blackhawks tuned up for their first playoff appearance in seven years by beating Detroit.
Andrew Ladd and Jonathan Toews scored first-period goal, and Dave Bolland converted on the power play in the third. Khabibulin has three shutouts this season. Chicago, a 4-2 winner over the Red Wings on Saturday in Detroit, was 6-0-1 in its final seven games and will open the playoffs against Calgary. Defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings will face Columbus in the first round.
BRUINS 6, ISLANDERS 2
At Uniondale, New York, Phil Kessel had three goals and an assist, and Tim Thomas made 32 saves for his 36th victory for Eastern Conference champion Boston.
Michael Ryder, Marc Savard and Chuck Kobasew also scored for the Bruins, who will face Montreal in the first round of the playoffs.
Radek Martinek and Doug Weight scored for New York. The Islanders finished last overall in the NHL, losing their last four games.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite