Penguins 1, Sabres 0

Jeff Carter scored, and Maxime Lagace stopped 29 shots for his first career shutout as the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 on Saturday.

Lagace, making his first start in more than two years, got his seventh career win, and helped Pittsburgh clinch home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Penguins were without Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, their top two goaltenders, for the regular season finale.

“Probably, what I’ll remember most is when the buzzer sounded,” Lagace said. “It was such a relief. Within the last four minutes, I’d say I started to think about the shutout. It was creeping into my head a little bit and I wanted it so bad.”

Carter scored his 17th goal as the Penguins finished the regular season with 13 wins and points in 14 of their last 16 games. Pittsburgh also finished 22-4-2 at home, one of the best marks in the league.

Michael Houser, who grew up in northern Pittsburgh suburbs, made 22 saves for Buffalo. Houser made his fourth straight start for the Sabres, who used an NHL-high six goalies this season.

Lagace played with the Vegas Golden Knights when he made his last start on Feb. 1, 2019, against Carolina. Lagace, who played in his 18th NHL game, joined Pittsburgh as a free agent in the offseason, and split the year on the team’s taxi squad and minor league affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He served as the backup for five games with Pittsburgh, including the last two before Saturday’s start.

“Playing my first NHL game in two years, I wanted to keep it simple,” Lagace said. “I tried to have fun … I did have fun, and the boys played well in front of me. I’m obviously very happy with the result.”

Lagace stopped Drake Caggiula on a breakaway late in the second period and made a point-blank save on Victor Olofsson in the third, both with Pittsburgh preserving a one-goal lead.

“I read the pass, but the reaction on the (Olofsson) shot was probably instinct, honestly,” Lagace said. “When he shot it, I put my glove up and it hit. Sometimes you have to be lucky, and I’ll take it, obviously.”

Carter scored the game’s only goal at 1:58 of the second period from Frederick Gaudreau. Carter had the first four-goal game of his career during an 8-4 win against the Sabres on Thursday. He has five of Pittsburgh’s last nine goals.

The Sabres endured an 18-game winless streak midway through the regular-season, but they won eight of their final 21 games. Buffalo missed the playoffs for the 10th straight season, but the Sabres outshot Pittsburgh 11-3 in the first period and 24-9, as they only trailed by a goal through 40 minutes.

“I think our guys advanced,” Sabres interim coach Don Granato said. “They have a taste of confidence. They should have had no confidence after giving up eight goals the other day. They came in from the drop of the puck and had confidence, and that’s progress.”

Pittsburgh will finish no worse than second place in the East Division, following Saturday’s win. But the Penguins seek their ninth division title in franchise history and first since the 2013-14 season.

Pittsburgh can win the division championship if Washington fails to win its final two games in regulation.

Pittsburgh clinched its 15th consecutive playoff berth last week, the longest active streak in major North American professional sports.

“This is when the fun starts,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve done the heavy lifting to earn the privilege to compete for the Stanley Cup. I look forward to the next part of it with this group of players.”

Evgeni Malkin was unable to finish Saturday’s game against Buffalo.

Teddy Blueger centered the second line late in the third period and Jared McCann replaced Malkin on the top unit during a late power play. Malkin, who didn’t play the final 8:48 of regulation, recently returned to the lineup after missing 23 games with a lower-body injury.

Sullivan said Malkin thought he “tweaked something” on a collision, and that the team held him out for precautionary reasons.

“He got checked out afterwards and felt fine,” Sullivan said. “We don’t anticipate any issues moving forward.”

DeSmith is dealing with an upper-body injury, while Jarry is working through a lower-body injury. DeSmith missed his third game, while Jarry played in Thursday’s win against Buffalo.

Sullivan expects both Jarry and DeSmith to be ready when the playoffs start.

Penguins’ forward Brandon Tanev participated in his third full-contact practice on Friday, but he also missed the regular-season finale on Saturday. He missed his 18th consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Tanev has missed 24 of the last 26 games.

Penguins’ D Mike Matheson missed his fourth straight game after he was struck in the face with a puck May 1 at Washington.

Carter is one goal from becoming the 101st player in NHL history and the second from the 2003 NHL Draft class to record 400 goals.

Carter has nine goals and 11 points in 14 games since Pittsburgh acquired the veteran forward from Los Angeles before the trade deadline. Carter had eight goals in 40 games with the Kings this season.

Capitals 2, Flyers 1 (OT)

Lars Eller tied it with 39.8 seconds left in regulation, Conor Sheary scored in overtime and short-handed Washington beat Philadelphia to guarantee it’ll open the playoffs at home.

Failing to win in regulation gave the East Division title to rival Pittsburgh. The Capitals locked up the No. 2 seed in the East and home-ice advantage in the first round.

Craig Anderson made 26 saves, allowing only Scott Laughton's goal.

Panthers 5, Lightning 1

Alex Wennberg scored three goals and Florida beat Tampa Bay, keeping alive its hopes of home-ice advantage in the upcoming first-round playoff series between the intrastate rivals.

The Panthers moved two points ahead of the Lightning and into second place in the Central Division. Florida can clinch home-ice advantage if it finishes ahead of Tampa Bay in the standings after the teams meet again Monday night to end their regular seasons.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for Florida.

Luke Schenn scored for Tampa Bay.

Predators 3, Hurricanes 1

Luke Kunin scored twice, Juuse Saros made 21 saves and Nashville beat the Carolina to secure the Central Division’s fourth and final playoff berth.

With Carolina already having locked up the top spot in the Central, the Hurricanes and Predators will meet in the opening round of the playoffs.

Erik Haula also scored, and Mikael Granlund had two assists for Nashville.

Morgan Geekie scored, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves for Carolina.

Oilers 4, Canucks 3

Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists to reach 100 points, leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

McDavid reached the milestone before the end of the second period of his 53rd game. The 24-year-old became the ninth NHL player — and first in his lifetime — to get to 100 points in 53 games or fewer.

McDavid has 32 goals and 68 assists for his NHL-leading 100 points. Edmonton has three games remaining in the regular season.

With his fourth 100-point season, McDavid became the third active player with at least four before age 25. The others are Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Leon Draisaitl scored twice, and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored for the Oilers. Defenseman Darnell Nurse had a pair of assists and goalie Mike Smith made 22 saves.

J.T. Miller, Travis Boyd and Tyler Graovac scored for the Canucks.

Coyotes 5, Sharks 4 (OT)

Phil Kessel scored his 10th goal of the season against San Jose 2:30 into overtime and Arizona ended its season with a victory.

Conor Garland had given Arizona the lead with 3:53 left before Alexander Barabanov answered for the Sharks with 48.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

That set the stage for Kessel to end his season with another goal against the Sharks for his 20th overall this season.

Christian Dvorak scored twice, and Jan Jenik also scored for the Coyotes. Adin Hill made 44 saves. Rudolfs Balcers, Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier also scored for the Sharks. Alexei Melnichuk made 27 saves in his first career NHL start and took the loss.

Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2

Mitch Marner scored his 20th goal of the season and Toronto beat Montreal to wrap up the North Division title.

William Nylander and Pierre Engvall also scored, and Jack Campbell made 21 saves. Toronto was 7-2-1 against the Canadiens in the season series as the Original Six rivals look poised to meet in the playoffs for the first time since 1979.

Toronto won its first division crown since 2000.

Nick Suzuki and Brett Kulak scored for Montreal, and Jake Allen stopped 23 shots.

Toronto beat Montreal 5-2 on Thursday night to open the two-game set.

Senators 4, Canucks 2

Rookie Tim Stutzle had his first NHL hat trick to help Ottawa beat Winnipeg for its third consecutive victory.

Connor Brown scored and added two assists, Shane Pinto also had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves. The Senators improved to 8-1-1 in their past 10 games.

Mason Appleton and Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 19 shots. The Jets have lost six in a row on home ice.

Wild 4, Ducks 3 (OT)

Victor Rask scored 2:46 into overtime and Minnesota beat Anaheim.

Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Hartman and Nick Bonino also scored and the Wild finished 4-1-2 on a season-high seven-game homestand. Kirill Kaprizov added two assists and Cam Talbot stopped 19 shots.

Rask took a pass from Matt Dumba and hammered a shot past Ryan Miller from the left circle. Miller concluded his stellar 18-season career by making 21 saves for Anaheim, which finished 17-30-9 and missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

Rickard Rakell, Trevor Zegras and Max Comtois scored for Anaheim.

Golden Knights 4, Blues 1

Reilly Smith had his first career hat trick, Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves and Vegas beat St. Louis to tie Carolina for the NHL points lead.

Chandler Stephenson also scored for the Golden Knights. Vegas extended its home winning streak to a season-high seven games. The Golden Knights will meet Colorado on Monday night in a matchup of the West Division's top two teams, with the division title still up for grabs.

Colton Parayko scored for St. Louis.

Avalanche 3, Kings 2

Devon Toews scored twice for his first multigoal game and Colorado beat Los Angeles.

Cale Makar had a goal and an assist for the second straight game, Jonas Johansson made 16 saves and the Avalanche won for the fourth time in five games.

Rasmus Kupari scored his first career goal, Sean Walker had a goal and an assist, and the Kings lost both games of a back-to-back to the Avalanche. Cal Petersen made 27 saves.

Blue Jackets 5, Red Wings 4 (OT)

Max Domi scored 4:39 into overtime to lift Columbus past Detroit in the season finale for both teams.

Eric Robinson, Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jack Roslovic also scored and Matiss Kivlenieks made 33 saves for the Blue Jackets. They finished last in the Central Division, missing a chance to pass Detroit when the game went to overtime.

Jakub Vrana, Dennis DeKeyser, Sam Gagner and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit.