capitals 4, lighting 2

John Carlson scored the go-ahead goal on a power play with 11:31 left, Charlie Lindgren made 32 saves in another strong performance when his team needed him and the Washington Capitals kept their playoff hopes alive by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Saturday.

Sonny Milano scored twice and Nic Dowd provided an insurance goal with 3:14 remaining as the Capitals won for just the second time in nine games to at least temporarily move into the Eastern Conference’s second and final wild-card spot. They may need to win their final two games of the season to return to the postseason after missing last year.

panthers 3, sabres 2, ot

Sam Reinhart got his 55th goal of the season with 1:02 left in overtime, and the Florida Panthers clinched home ice for at least Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs by beating the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in the next-to-last regular-season game for both teams on Saturday.

Reinhart took a pass from Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov and delivered the winner. Anton Lundell and Kevin Stenlund also scored for Florida, and Matthew Tkachuk had an assist — his 60th of the season, the third straight year he’s had that many.

flyers 1, devils 0

Travis Konecny scored a short-handed breakaway goal and Samuel Ersson stopped 20 shots to keep the Philadelphia Flyers’ miniscule postseason hopes alive with one game left to play in a 1-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night.

The Flyers entered Saturday with two games left while Pittsburgh, Washington and Detroit all had three games remaining as they competed for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Flyers had to win both games to have a shot at a playoff berth. The rest hinged on Detroit, Pittsburgh and Washington all losing or tying their games to give the Flyers a slim mathematical edge at making the postseason for the first time since they reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2020.

jets 7, avalanche 0

The Winnipeg Jets want to remember this game for everything that went right. Colorado wants to remember it, too, for all that went wrong.

Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry scored 10 seconds apart in a four-goal first period that chased Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the net, and the Jets moved into the driver’s seat for the Central Division’s second seed with a 7-0 win against the Avalanche on Saturday.

stars 3, kraken 1

Defenseman Miro Heiskanen had a goal and two assists, and Jason Robertson had a goal and an assist as the Dallas Stars beat the Seattle Kraken 3-1 on Saturday to clinch the Central Division title for the first time in eight years.

Craig Smith also scored for the Stars, who remain in contention for both the top seed in the Western Conference and the Presidents’ Trophy with one game to play in the regular season.

Heiskanen scored Dallas’ final goal on a wrap-around with 7:37 left to play for his fourth game of at least three points this season.