In the calm night before the hectic 15-game Saturday storm that will wrap up the National Hockey League's regular season schedule, only the Pittsburgh Penguins had a chance to make the playoffs. They didn't, but the Buffalo Sabres met their goal. Sort of.
Penguins miss opportunity to clinch
The struggling Pittsburgh Penguins missed out on a golden opportunity to claim a playoff spot when they dropped a 3-1 decision to the New York Islanders at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. It was the Penguins 10th loss in 15 games down the stretch as they've posted a 3-10-2 record to weaken their grasp on a playoff spot.
Pittsburgh entered the penultimate regular season game with 96 points, one up on Boston and would have secured at least the second Eastern Conference wild card spot (Ottawa has the first with 97 points) with a win.
They came close to opening the scoring in the first period when Patric Hornqvist tried to slip a shot past the Islanders' Jaroslav Halak, but after a lengthy review the no-goal call stood.
Just eight seconds later, the Islanders capitalized and took the lead on a goal by Casey Cizikas.
Pittsburgh's Rob Scuderi tied the game late in the second period with his first goal in over two years but John Tavares scored his 37th goal in the third period and Michael Grabner secured the triumph for the Isles. They are on track to meet the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs and trail the Caps by one point for home ice advantage to start the series.
The Penguins have one more chance to get it right when they travel to Buffalo on Saturday.
Sabres reach their goal
For the Buffalo Sabres, the goal, unsaid, but crystal clear, is to finish last and secure one of the top two picks in the NHL Draft, most assuredly either Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel. They stripped down their team and needed a loss -- their 50th of the season -- to accomplish such a feat. The Arizona Coyotes were two points ahead and would finish higher based on more regulation and overtime wins.
It didn't take long for the Sabres to fall behind Friday in Columbus. Just 14 seconds in fact, compliments of Nick Foligno.
Alas, the Sabres twice battled back to tie the game against the Blue Jackets, threatening to come away with a point if the game went to overtime. But not to worry. Third period goals by Cam Atkinson and Boone Jenner kept Buffalo from adding to its points total. 4-2 was the final.
Some Sabres fans were doing a little dreaming about what might happen at the June NHL Draft.
The scoring race
John Tavares of the Islanders and Sidney Crosby of the Penguins took advantage of the game they had in hand over Dallas's Jamie Benn to break the three-way tie for the NHL scoring lead and the Art Ross Trophy.
Crosby assisted on the Penguins' only goal to move up to 84 points (28-56-84). Then Taveras answered back with the game-winning goal, his 37th of the season, and an edge in the scoring race by virtue of more goals (37-47-84).
All three players have one game remaining Saturday. Taveras and the Islanders are home for Columbus, Crosby and company are in Buffalo and Benn (32-51-83) and the Stars have a home date with Nashville.
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