Boston Bruins 3-4 Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals continued their pursuit of the President's Trophy with a 4-3 road win over the Boston Bruins.
Nic Dowd opened the scoring with six and a half minutes left in the opening period on a short-handed situation. Two minutes later, the Caps' lead was doubled thanks to their captain, Alex Ovechkin. The 'Gr8' notched his 891st goal of his NHL career on a power play to put him four goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's scoring record.
The Bruins recovered in the second period to tie things up. First, Vinni Lettieri got the hosts on the scoreboard six minutes in, before David Pastrnak tied things up on a man advantage.
Yet, despite their impressive second-period comeback, Washington scored two more in the third. Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson converted four minutes apart to send the Caps on their way. Pastrnak did add a third for the Bruins with a little less than five minutes left, but they could not find their leveller.
In what was their 41st regular season victory, the Capitals are 11 points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes atop the Eastern Conference. Their win also ended a run of three defeats. As for Boston, they remain rock bottom of the conference, losing their ninth on the spin.
Montreal Canadiens 3-2 Florida Panthers (OT)
A dramatic end at the Bell Centre went the Montreal Canadiens' way as they edged the Florida Panthers 3-2 in overtime.
Josh Anderson put the home team in front 4:43 into the game. It would take the Panthers a little less than six minutes to find their response, as Niko Mikkola tied things up.
The Panthers outshot the Habs in this clash 49-33, so perhaps it was unsurprising that they ended up taking the lead. It happened late in the second period through Matthew Samoskevich. They would hold onto the lead for basically the whole third period.
Remarkably, despite giving up only six shots in the last period of regulation, Florida still found a way to concede. Nick Suzuki scored with seven seconds left to tie things up and force overtime. Then, just 29 seconds into the mini-period, the centre found the back of the net again. This time, it won his team the game.
The result leaves the Habs in sole possession of the eighth and final playoff place in the East. As for the Panthers, they dropped to fifth place in the conference, though they are set for a postseason appearance.