NHL Recap: Stamkos makes Bolts history, Panthers and Flames win their divisions
Anthony Scultore
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NHL Recap for April 21, 2022 highlights all 11 games on the schedule and updates the playoff picture.
The Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues are the first confirmed Round 1 matchup after each picked up wins. All that remains for them is to battle it out for home-ice advantage in the series.
Additionally, the West playoff picture has the Calgary Flames clinching the Pacific Division while the L.A. Kings notched a huge win as they look to lock in third-place. They are now 5 points up on the Golden Knights, who remain just two points behind the Dallas Stars for the final Wild Card spot.
In the East, the Florida Panthers have clinched the Atlantic Division and the top seed. The Metro Division is a two horse race for first with the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers remaining tied after both picked up victories.
The East wild card still has the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals looking likely as the Pittsburgh Penguins shutout Boston to go up two points on the Caps. Plus the Tampa Bay Lightning are up three points on the B’s thanks to Steven Stamkos’ historic night.
NHL Recap: Lightning 8, Maple Leafs 1
Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists to break the Lightning’s record for career points in a victory over visiting Toronto.
Stamkos scored his 34th goal of the season on a second-period power play to record his 954th point, passing Martin St. Louis as the franchise’s all-time leader. Stamkos added two assists in the third period.
“It’s funny how things work out,” Stamkos said. “To do it at home against the team I grew up idolizing. Having ‘Kuch’ and ‘Heddy’ assist on a one-time shot. My parents were here, my wife was here … I don’t really think of myself as an emotional guy, but that really hit me. It was just amazing experience for me to have.”
Alex Killorn and Ross Colton each had two goals and an assist, Ondrej Palat contributed a goal and two assists and Nikita Kucherov added a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Ilya Mikheyev scored for Toronto.
Hurricanes 4, Jets 2
Rookie Seth Jarvis scored the go-ahead goal against his hometown team with 11:39 to play as Carolina defeated visiting Winnipeg.
Jaccob Slavin and Jordan Staal (empty-net goal) also scored in the third period to help Carolina complete a comeback from a 2-0 deficit. Teuvo Teravainen notched the Hurricanes’ first goal. Antti Raanta made 20 saves.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored in the first period for Winnipeg. Eric Comrie stopped 42 shots.
Flyers 6, Canadiens 3
James van Riemsdyk had two goals and one assist while Ivan Provorov had one goal and one assist to lift Philadelphia past host Montreal in a matchup of the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference.
Oskar Lindblom, Travis Konecny and Morgan Frost added one goal apiece for the Flyers, who snapped a six-game losing streak. Bobby Brink contributed two assists for Philadelphia, and Martin Jones made 31 saves for the win.
Mike Hoffman, Jake Evans and Cole Caufield scored one goal each for the Canadiens, who dropped their seventh in a row.
Panthers 5, Red Wings 2
Mason Marchment had a goal and an assist as the Florida Panthers clinched the Atlantic Division title and the best record in the Eastern Conference with a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday in Sunrise, Fla.
The Panthers extended their winning streak to a franchise-record-tying 12 games, matching a run from Dec. 15, 2015, to Jan. 10, 2016.
Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart netted power-play goals and Noel Acciari and MacKenzie Weegar scored for the Panthers, who won for the 10th consecutive time at home.
“We put a lot of hard work into the season and locking up the division is a big accomplishment for us,” Weegar said. “But there’s obviously the bigger picture here and we’ll enjoy that, locking up division and getting the home-ice advantage for the playoffs here.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves for his 38th triumph to tie Nashville’s Juuse Saros for the NHL lead. The Red Wings got goals from Sam Gagner and Tyler Bertuzzi and two assists from Pius Suter.
Wild 6, Canucks 3
Kevin Fiala scored two goals and Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and two assists to lead Minnesota to a victory over Vancouver in Saint Paul, Minn.
Ryan Hartman had a goal and an assist, Jared Spurgeon scored once and Frederick Gaudreau added two assists for Minnesota, which secured second or third place in the Central Division and will face the St. Louis Blues in the playoffs.
Elias Pettersson scored two goals, Conor Garland had two assists and Matthew Highmore also scored for Vancouver.
Blues 3, Sharks 1
Robert Thomas scored the go-ahead goal as St. Louis extended its point streak to 14 games with a victory at San Jose.
The Blues have gone 12-0-2 during their club-record streak to keep pace with the Wild in the race for second place in the Central Division. Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist while Dakota Joshua also scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington made 20 saves.
Noah Gregor scored and James Reimer made 25 saves for the Sharks, who are 1-7-4 in their past 12 games.
Rangers 6, Islanders 3
Andrew Copp recorded a natural hat trick in the first period as the New York Rangers rolled to a victory over the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
The Rangers clinched at least second place in the Metropolitan Division. They are tied with the Hurricanes in points, but Carolina currently holds the tiebreaker edge with one more regulation win.
Chris Kreider scored his league-leading 26th power-play goal while Ryan Strome and Ryan Reaves also scored for the Rangers.
Artemi Panarin collected four assists and ended the night at 96 points, surpassing the career high of 95 set in his first season with the Rangers in 2019-20. Adam Fox contributed three assists.
Rangers backup goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves and won his seventh straight start.
“We’ve done a good job securing home ice,” Fox said. “I mean, you’re going to play a good team either way. Like we’ve preached for a while now, just playing the right way these past few games and not letting it slip. You want to be rolling going into playoffs and that’s where our mindset is at.”
Brock Nelson scored twice, and Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who lost their third straight.
Sabres 5, Devils 2
Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist to help Buffalo earn a win in Newark, N.J.
Owen Power scored his first NHL goal, Victor Olofsson had three assists and Tage Thompson had two assists for the Sabres, who have won three in a row. Craig Anderson made 29 saves.
Jesper Boqvist and Nikita Okhotiuk scored and Andrew Hammond made 23 saves for the Devils.
Penguins 4, Bruins 0
Jake Guentzel had a hat trick to reach 40 goals and Casey DeSmith stopped all 52 shots he faced as host Pittsburgh beat Boston.
It was DeSmith’s ninth career shutout, his third of the season and his first against Boston. His save total was a franchise record for a shutout. Jason Zucker also scored for the Penguins, who had lost nine of 13 (4-7-2) entering the night.
Jeremy Swayman made 28 saves for the Bruins, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.
Flames 4, Stars 2
Matthew Tkachuk reached the 40-goal and 100-point plateaus and Christopher Tanev’s third-period goal broke a tie as host Calgary beat Dallas to clinch the Pacific Division title.
“We realize that home ice is very important, and to get as many games at home, and to get the majority of the games in a series in your own building, that’s huge for us,” Tkachuk said. “To clinch the division, that’s great, but we’re not stopping there. We have bigger goals for our team.”
Andrew Mangiapane had a goal and an assist and Noah Hanifin also scored for the Flames, who are on an 8-1-1 tear. Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves.
Jason Robertson and Luke Glendening replied for the Stars, who have lost three straight games. Jake Oettinger stopped 33 shots.
Kings 4, Blackhawks 1
Andreas Athanasiou and Trevor Moore each scored goals 15 seconds apart in the third period as Los Angeles beat visiting Chicago and inched closer to its first playoff appearance in four seasons.
Phillip Danault and Anze Kopitar also scored goals while Jonathan Quick made 15 saves for the Kings, who can secure their spot in the postseason with two victories over their last three games.
Patrick Kane scored a goal and Collin Delia had 31 saves for the Blackhawks, who lost for the third time in four games. Chicago is 2-9-2 going back to March 26.
–Field Level Media contributed to this report