Edmonton Oilers' Matt Savoie (22) is hugged by Vasily Podkolzin (92) as he celebrates his hat-trick against the Vancouver Canucks.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Connor McDavid had four assists and rookie Matthew Savoie scored his first career hat trick as the Edmonton Oilers secured second place in the Pacific Division and home ice to start the first round of playoffs with a clutch 6-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Josh Samanski, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colton Dach also scored and Evan Bouchard chipped in with three assists for the Oilers (41-30-12) who closed out the regular season with a 7-2-2 record in their final 11 games. The Oilers finished 30-5-5 when scoring first this season.
Edmonton was buoyed by the return of veteran scorer Zach Hyman and are expecting star forward Leon Draisaitl back during the opening round of post-season play against the Anaheim Ducks.
Ty Mueller scored his first career goal for the last-place Canucks (25-49-8) who had a three-game winning streak halted.
Connor Ingram recorded just 11 saves to earn the win in the Edmonton net, while Kevin Lankinen made 29 stops for Vancouver.
TAKEAWAYS
Canucks: Jake DeBrusk was held scoreless after notching four goals in his three previous contests. Of DeBrusk’s 23 goals on the season, 19 came on the power play (82.6 per cent). The only other player in NHL history to finish a season with more than 20 goals and more than 80 per cent of them scored on the man advantage was Camille Henry of the New York Rangers in 1953-54.
Oilers: McDavid finished the regular season with 138 points. As the NHL’s top scorer, he captured his sixth Art Ross title, tying him with Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe for second most in league history behind Wayne Gretzky’s 10. McDavid became the third player in league history to get a point in every one of his team’s wins this year with 41, Gretzky coming next with 29 in 1980-81. With his four-point night, he reached 1,220 career points, passing Jeremy Roenick, Larry Murphy and Jean Beliveau to advance to 47th place on the NHL’s all-time point scoring list. McDavid entered the season in 71st place.
KEY STAT
Bouchard picked up three assists to cap off a tremendous regular season, easily winning the scoring race among defencemen with 95 points. He passed Ray Bourque for the seventh most points by a blueliner in a season since 1989-90, a list led by current Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey who had 103 that year.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Await the draft lottery after finishing last in the NHL this season.
Oilers: Host the Anaheim Ducks to start the playoffs on Monday.
Ducks beat Predators 5-4 to clinch the Pacific’s third seed
Anaheim Ducks right wing Troy Terry (19) skates the puck past Nashville Predators left wing Zachary L'heureux (68).George Walker IV/The Associated Press
Troy Terry scored on a power play with 2:54 left, and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 5-4 on Thursday night helping them clinch the third seed in the Pacific Division for the postseason.
Anaheim also took the season series against Nashville 2-1, though the Ducks go into the postseason 2-6-2 over their final 10.
Cutter Gauthier, Jackson LaCombe, Alex Killorn and Tristan Luneau scored for Anaheim. Mikael Granlund had three assists.
Steven Stamkos scored twice and had an assist for Nashville, giving him 42 goals this season. Filip Forsberg scored two goals, giving him 40, and the Predators a pair of 40-goal scorers. Luke Evangelista and Ryan Ufko added two assists apiece.
- The Associated Press
Parekh scores winner as Flames beat Kings 3-1
Kings to face league-leading Colorado Avalanche in playoffs
Calgary Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh (19) celebrates his goal against the Los Angeles Kings.Sergei Belski/Reuters
Zayne Parekh snapped a 1-1 tie with a goal at 6:08 of the third period to lift the Calgary Flames to a 3-1 season-ending win over the playoff-bound Los Angeles Kings on Thursday.
Rookie goalie Arsenii Sergeev made his first career NHL start, stopping 27 of 28 shots for the Flames (34-39-9).
Morgan Frost opened the scoring at 5:21 of the second period on the power play with his 22nd of the year. Matvei Gridin and Matt Coronato picked up the assists.
Quinton Byfield responded less than two minutes later with his 24th of the season.
Joel Farabee netted his 20th goal on the season as he sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minute.
Calgary’s Ryan Strome wrapped up his campaign with a two-assist effort.
Anton Forsberg made 18 saves for the Kings (35-27-20), who learned during the game that they’d have to settle for the second wild-card seed and a playoff date with the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.
The Edmonton Oilers finished second in the Pacific Division with 93 points after a 6-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks, while the Anaheim Ducks edged the Nashville Predators 5-4 to finish third in the Pacific with 92 points.
TAKEAWAYS
Flames: Russian netminder Sergeev has spent time in both the ECHL and the AHL this season before his NHL debut. The 23-year-old was a seventh-round pick for the Flames in the 2021 NHL entry draft.
Kings: Anze Kopitar, who appeared in his final regular-season game, finished with the seventh-most career points all-time by a born and trained European player with 1,316. The leader of the category is Jaromir Jagr who recorded 1,921 points. Kings’ centre Scott Laughton left the game in discomfort after blocking a Frost shot in the second period. Laughton eventually returned.
KEY MOMENT
Parekh scored his fourth of the season to make it 2-1.
KEY STAT
Matvei Gridin became just the fifth Flames player in the past 20 years to record 20 points in a season at age 20 or younger. The forward wrapped up his rookie season with 20 points in 37 games.
UP NEXT
Flames: Begin the off-season.
Kings: Visit the league-league Colorado Avalanche on Sunday to start the first round of playoffs.