TORONTO (AP) — Rookie Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored twice, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 on Saturday night to clinch the Eastern Conference’s top seed through the playoffs.
The Lightning not only dropped the game in completing preliminary round-robin play with a 2-1 record, Tampa Bay’s star defenseman Victor Hedman did not return after appearing to twist his right ankle while going down untouched midway through the first period. The Lightning did not provide any details on the 2017 Norris Trophy winner’s status except to announce he would miss the remainder of the game.
Joel Farabee had a goal and assist, Tyler Pitlick scored into an empty net with 1:20 left, and Carter Hart stopped 23 shots for the Flyers, who finished 3-0. Philadelphia didn’t allow more than one goal in also defeating Boston and Washington, and out-scored its opponents by a combined 11-3.
The Flyers move on to the first round next week and face the 12th-seeded Montreal Canadiens.
Tyler Johnson scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots.
Tampa Bay will enter the first round of the playoffs as the East’s second seed.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, AVALANCHE 3, OT
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Alex Tuch scored 4:44 into overtime, Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and Vegas beat Colorado to earn the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
The Golden Knights will face Chicago in the first round of the playoffs. The second-seeded Avs take on Arizona.
Tuch scored the winner on a shot over the shoulder of Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer. The Avalanche tied the game with 1:02 left in regulation when J.T. Compher poked in the puck.
Nicolas Roy also scored for the Golden Knights, who finished 3-0 in the playoff seeding round between the top four teams. Colorado wound up 2-0-1.
Robin Lehner finished with 32 saves in starting over Marc-Andre Fleury.
Joonas Donskoi and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche. The veteran Grubauer was solid in saving 22 shots.
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