Maple Leafs beat Penguins to clinch final playoff spot

The Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, with Connor Brown scoring the victor at 17:12 of the third period to put an exclamation mark on an evening of intense drama.

The late Al Davis uttered the phrase “Just win, Baby” as the motto for his Oakland Raiders to live by and over the next 48 hours, that is what the Toronto Maple Leafs have to do. “It doesn’t matter what Pittsburgh does, we’ve got to get ourselves right to play and play like we normally do and don’t let the excitement of the moment or the energy of the moment or what we’re trying to do get in the way of who we are”. I think he’s a really skilled guy that’s got a lot of strength, nearly like a power forward, so it’s a good combination to have.

The Bruins can clinch the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic by picking up two points in their final game of the season. In his rookie season, the Leafs were supposed to take the next step after finally becoming a playoff team only to drive off yet another cliff and precipitate the biggest housecleaning in franchise history. No one could have counted on how Matthews has scored 39 goals, or that Mitch Marner and William Nylander would each have 60 or more points. The mostly steady goaltending of Frederik Andersen – who was injured against Pittsburgh – helped, as did career years from Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Tyler Bozak. The Leafs were 1-1-1 against the Capitals in the regular season, but their most recent meeting was a 4-1 defeat April 4, and the Buds were not at their best in that contest.

It doesn’t matter how the Bruins get those two points – regulation, overtime, or shootout – because Toronto can not make up the five-game gap in ROW.

Kasperi Kapanen scored his first career National Hockey League goal at 14:30 of the third when he was left uncovered at the right side of the net. It will face the Senators if it gets at least a point against Columbus.

“I guess you could call it a five-team race, but it’s really a three-team race if anything”, Winnik said. A 23-7 edge in shot attempts in the opening period failed to break the 1-1 tie after 20 minutes. But I might have to go pretty deep here to get a beard. Brendan Shanahan was brought in as president, Babcock as coach, and Lou Lamoriello as general manager.

It’s been an incredible ride this year for a team comprised of so many young players.

“That was a good year too and a good team and now it’s different”, Komarov added. “I think coaches are allowing them to play and I think you get a better brand of hockey”.

Seemingly tired in their loss to the Capitals, the Leafs looked like they had some energy back in the early-going against the Lightning, almost scoring with a pair of chances on the second of two straight power plays – one from Bozak, the other from Nazem Kadri.

This after Andersen left the game on Saturday against Pittsburgh after he was hit by Penguins forward Tom Sestito.

In the East, only two matchups are set, between the Canadiens and Rangers, and the defending champion Penguins and the Blue Jackets.

Sidney Crosby scored his 44th goal of the season, strengthening his hold on the Rocket Richard Trophy, but he was robbed by Curtis McElhinney from the right post in the final period.

NEW YORK (AP) – Anders Lee and Brock Nelson scored in the second period and New York closed the season with its sixth straight win by beating playoff-bound Ottawa.

Babcock said he spent the first two years of his Toronto experience with rarely a peep of interaction among his neighbours and now people were talking to him “every single second for the last week so it must be a big deal”.