Gameday 96 (Wed, 24 Apr) - Results

Toronto v Tampa Bay 2-5 - Martin St. Louis knows that he and the Tampa Bay Lightning are not going to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That doesn't mean he'll go home empty-handed when the regular season ends Saturday. St. Louis took over the NHL scoring lead with his seventh career hat trick as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Wednesday night. The three-goal night gives St. Louis 58 points, two more than teammate Steven Stamkos and Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, who's been out since breaking his jaw on March 30. Stamkos scored his 29th goal of the season and added an assist to pull even with Crosby in the points race. However, the go-ahead goal came from a most unlikely source, rookie defenseman Radko Gudas. Teddy Purcell was aiming for Stamkos on the opposite side of the ice, but his pass hit a Toronto player and caromed out just beyond the top of the right circle to Gudas. He stepped into the shot and blasted it just above goaltender James Reimer's shoulder and under the crossbar at 3:13 of the third period to put Tampa Bay ahead 3-2. Earlier in the game Gudas took a hard hit at the Lightning bench and skipped a few shifts but was able to return. St. Louis added an insurance goal at 13:08 and completed his hat trick when he hit the empty net at 17:11 after Toronto puller Reimer for an extra attacker. Ben Bishop made 26 saves for Tampa Bay (18-24-4). The loss kept the Maple Leafs (25-16-5) in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 55 points and two games to play. They trail the fourth-place Montreal Canadiens by four points and are one ahead of the sixth-place New York Islanders. Toronto visits the Florida Panthers on Thursday before hosting the Canadiens on Saturday night. St. Louis put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1 when he scored his first goal of the night at 15:48 of the second period when he finished off a 3-on-2 break. After drawing Reimer to him at the right of the net, Nate Thompson got his second assist of the game when he sent the puck across to St. Louis who flipped the puck home to extend his points streak against Toronto to six games. The lead was short-lived, however, as Joffrey Lupul, standing alone below the left circle, took a cross-crease pass from MacArthur and hit a wide-open net with 24 seconds remaining in the period for his 11th of the season. After the Maple Leafs rang shots off the posts on each side of Bishop earlier in the opening period, they put one behind him at 17:03 when Tyler Bozak intercepted Matt Carle's clearing pass at the left point and made a cross-ice feed to Phil Kessel, who beat Bishop for his 17th of the season. Stamkos evened the score 5:54 into the second period when he took a pass from Thompson, deked around Toronto defender Mark Fraser and broke in on Reimer. As he moved through the crease Stamkos moved the puck to his backhand and put puck over Reimer's blocker. He trails Washington's Alex Ovechkin by two goals in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy. Tampa Bay was able to thwart Toronto's rushes and play most of the second and third periods in the Maple Leaf zone.

Los Angeles v Detroit 1-3 - It was a victory the Detroit Red Wings needed badly, and they made sure to get it Wednesday against the Los Angeles Kings. Despite a game effort by the Kings, who played their second in as many nights and didn't have suspended captain Dustin Brown, the Red Wings chalked up a big 3-1 win at Joe Louis Arena to edge one point ahead of the idle Columbus Blue Jackets into eighth place in the Western Conference. Pavel Datsyuk, Jordin Tootoo and Johan Franzen scored the goals for the Red Wings (22-16-8), who took a big step toward extending their run of 21 straight seasons qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Detroit (52 points) and Columbus (51) each have two games left and will sprint to the finish vying for the West's final playoff spot with the Dallas Stars (48 points) just off the pace. The Blue Jackets face the Stars on the road Thursday, and the Red Wings will play host to the Nashville Predators to conclude their final back-to-back set of the season. Detroit will end its season Saturday in Dallas, and Columbus is home against Nashville in what could be a photo finish of sorts for the last postseason berth. Kyle Clifford scored the goal for the Kings (26-16-5), who've lost two in a row and were fourth in the West coming into the game, tied with the San Jose Sharks at 57 points. Los Angeles has one game left, against San Jose, to make a bid for home ice in the quarterfinal round. The Kings will again be without Brown, who was issued a two-game suspension by the NHL for elbowing Minnesota Wild forward Jason Pominville during Tuesday's game. Tyler Toffoli was called up from Manchester of the American Hockey League on Wednesday and played on the right side of center Anze Kopitar. Goaltender Jonathan Quick took the loss, making 33 saves and keeping the Kings in the game when the Red Wings dominated the action early. Jimmy Howard picked up the win by making 23 saves and thwarting several prime scoring chances in the first two periods that could've swung momentum toward the visitors. The atmosphere in the arena was akin to a playoff game, which makes sense considering how vital each point is to the Red Wings. The Red Wings came out as strong as expected. They led 13-4 in shots after 20 minutes, but the game was scoreless thanks to some outstanding work in net by Quick and a heady play by Detroit's Brendan Smith midway through to stop a sure goal by Mike Richards off a rebound of Toffoli's slap shot from the right circle. Los Angeles didn't get a shot on goal until nearly four minutes into the game and by that point Detroit had put six on target. The Kings were credited with two power plays in the first period, but one lasted 10 seconds and the second was killed off without a shot on goal. Detroit also carried the play early in the second until Clifford's sixth goals of the season put Los Angeles up 1-0 at 5:28, when he put home a rebound of Trevor Lewis' stuff attempt at the side of the net. Datsyuk evened it 1-1 at 10:32 with his 14th goal of the season, and it was a pretty one. After Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson threw a shot toward the net from near the half wall, Quick deflected the puck to Datsyuk on the left side of the net. Quick saw it and did the splits, but the Detroit center backhanded a shot underneath him into the net. That's how it stayed until 5:42 into the third, when Tootoo tipped a slap shot by Patrick Eaves in the slot and watched it go into the net. Franzen made it 3-1 on a power play with 6:26 left by tapping a perfect pass from Zetterberg through the pads. Franzen, who might've been injured sometime after his goal, was unavailable to return. The goal was his sixth in the past six games and 11th point in April, so losing him would be a big blow.

Chicago v Edmonton 4-1 - For the first time since 1990-91, the Chicago Blackhawks are the NHL's best regular-season team. The Blackhawks added the second Presidents' Trophy in franchise history to their list of accomplishments this season when they beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1 on Wednesday at Rexall Place. The victory gives the Blackhawks 75 points; the Eastern Conference-leading Pittsburgh Penguins can't get more than 74. Chicago, 10-1-2 in its past 13 games, is assured of the home-ice advantage for as far as it goes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begin next week. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane had first-period goals for the Blackhawks (35-6-5), who bounced back after a 3-1 road loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Monday. Johnny Oduya added another early in the third period, and Patrick Sharp hit the empty net with 1:42 remaining. Emery allowed one goal on eight shots before leaving 13:49 into the game; Quenneville said he's day-to-day. Crawford's best stop was a tremendous glove stop on Jordan Eberle 7:48 into the second period. It was the third loss, all at home, in four days for the Oilers (17-22-7). Edmonton has dropped nine of 10 since an 8-2 victory against the Calgary Flames on April 3. The Oilers have scored 13 goals in those 10 games. The Blackhawks jumped in front 3:58 after the opening faceoff when Toews came in on an odd-man rush and wristed a shot from the top of the right circle that beat Devan Dubnyk for his 22nd of the season. That lead lasted just 52 seconds. Nail Yakupov, the first player taken in the 2012 NHL Draft, tied it at 4:50 when he took the rebound of Marc Fistric's missed shot off the end boards and hammered it past Emery from the left circle for his 12th of the season. Kane put the Blackhawks ahead to stay at 8:11. Michal Handzus picked up the puck at his own blue line after a turnover and sprung Kane on a breakaway. Kane raced in and slid a shot between Dubnyk's legs for his 22nd of the season. The Blackhawks limited Edmonton to just two shots in the second period, but Crawford made the best stop of the night on the first one when he used his glove to rob Eberle from 15 feet. Oduya provided some insurance at 4:36 of the third period when he took a slick pass from Kane and beat Dubnyk with a wrister from the lower left circle for his third goal of the season. Drew LeBlanc, the Hobey Baker Award winner as the top player in U.S. college hockey, made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks. He played 12:12 and had three shots on goal, including two excellent chances during the third period.

San Jose v Phoenix 1-2 - For the first time in his four-year stint in the desert, Dave Tippett's Phoenix Coyotes played a meaningless hockey game. But even with a Stanley Cup Playoff berth out of their grasp, the Coyotes stayed the course and grinded out a typical Tippett textbook win in the spoiler role. Defenseman Michael Stone and Keith Yandle scored during a dominant first period and goalie Mike Smith did the rest with 33 saves as the Coyotes kept the San Jose Sharks out of a top-four spot in the Western Conference for the moment with a 2-1 win Wednesday. Brent Burns scored the only goal for San Jose one night after the Sharks clinched their ninth straight playoff berth with an emotional, come-from-behind win against the Dallas Stars. Burns had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but Smith made an athletic pad save to preserve the win. The Sharks had a chance to jump past the Kings, who lost to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, and into the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference. Instead, the Sharks and Kings will square off in L.A. in the regular-season finale Saturday. Both teams have 57 points with one game remaining; the St. Louis Blues are one point behind them but have a game in hand and could leap over both teams by winning out. San Jose outshot the Coyotes 13-5 in the third period and had several good opportunities down the stretch but couldn't get a second puck past Smith. San Jose goalie Thomas Greiss made his first start since March 6 and played well with 30 saves, but it wasn't enough as the Coyotes avenged a 4-0 loss to San Jose here nine days ago that was the beginning of the end of their playoff hopes. Sharks goalie Antti Niemi got the night off after making 24 consecutive starts and playing all but 10 minutes between the pipes during the past seven weeks. Greiss made several good early saves early, but didn't get a lot of support in front of him early before the Coyotes broke through. Shane Doan won a battle in the corner and got the puck back to Radim Vrbata, who reversed it to the weak side where Stone was waiting. Stone's blast whistled past Greiss' shoulder at 11:56 for his fifth goal of the season and the Coyotes, who are 13-1-3 when scoring first, were off and running. Even the Phoenix power play, which had scored all of four goals in its last 41 chances, got into the act after Matt Tennyson hooked down Doan. This time it was Yandle, whose shot deflected off two Sharks in the slot before skipping into the net at 17:52. It was the 10th goal of the season for Yandle, who had 11 in 82 games last season, and the eighth he's scored in 23 home games. San Jose showed much more life in the second and cut the lead in half quickly. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was pressured into a turnover by TJ Galiardi in the Phoenix zone and Burns pounced on it. His snap shot from the right circle handcuffed Smith at 3:31 and broke a long scoring drought against the Phoenix goalie -- Smith had shut out the Sharks in each of his past three starts, dating back to March 2012, and had blanked San Jose for more than 208 minutes.