To wrap up their 2025-26 home schedule, the Anaheim Ducks hosted the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday evening at Honda Center. This home closer had more weight behind it than any in the last eight years, as a win would clinch the Ducks a playoff spot for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

The Ducks were coming off a get-right win on Thursday, as they defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-1 and snapped a six-game winless streak.

Anaheim Ducks Goaltender Lukas Dostal Nominated for King Clancy Memorial Trophy

Takeaways from the Ducks 6-1 Win over the Sharks

For Vancouver, this was their second game of a back-to-back, as they snapped their own four-game losing streak with a 4-3 shootout win against the Sharks on Saturday.

The Ducks saw the return of two prominent pieces in their lineup, as Cutter Gauthier returned after missing the Ducks’ previous five games with an upper-body injury. Captain Radko Gudas also returned to the blueline after missing six of their last seven games. Frank Vatrano, Olen Zellweger, and Drew Helleson served as healthy scratches in this one.

Here’s how the Ducks lined up to start:

Kreider-Carlsson-Terry

Killorn-Granlund-Sennecke

Viel-McTavish-Gauthier

Washe-Poehling-Moore

LaCombe-Trouba

Mintyukov-Carlson

Hinds-Gudas

Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks in this game, setting a career high for games in a season with 55. He stopped 22 of 26 shots in this one. In the Vancouver crease stood Nikita Tolopilo, who saved 24 of 27.

Games Notes

The Ducks got off to one of their better starts, dominating the shot count, manufacturing quality chances early, and getting out to a lead just three minutes in. Vancouver pushed back and got a goal off a net front battle and a power play goal to close out the first.

After a cycle-heavy second period didn’t amount to anything on the scoreboard, the Ducks allowed a shorthanded goal early in the third. In typical 2025-26 Anaheim Ducks fashion, led by their youngest and most talented players, they refused to let this game slip away, and notched two tallies in short succession, following Vancouver’s shorthanded goal.

In overtime, Beckett Sennecke tried to force a play, turned it over at his blueline, Chris Kreider took a penalty, and the Canucks won it on the ensuing power play in overtime. Special teams proved an issue again in this game, but at 5v5, they won every category decisively. They accounted for 58.67% of the shot attempts, 60.53% of the shots on goal, and 66.92% of the expected goals.

“Well, we fell short. I didn’t like the call at the end of the game,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “That didn’t help, certainly. We battled back there in that third period. I thought we played fine all game. We had good pace, good energy, and worked hard.”

Cutter Gauthier: Teams don’t want to be over-reliant on one player to contribute a sizable percentage of their offense. However, the Ducks were clearly missing Gauthier over the last five games. His finishing ability and knack for instant offense is something the Ducks always have in their back pocket whenever they need a go-ahead goal early or a goal to get them back into a game.

In this one, he did his damage on the power play (or when a power play had just expired) from his home on the right flank. Few players can beat NHL goaltenders from distance regularly, even with puck movement, but Gauthier is one of the few. His line with Viel and McTavish didn’t have their best defensive performance, but did well to pressure Vancouver’s defensemen and disrupt on the forecheck.

Cycle: The Ducks seemed keen to feed pucks to their defensemen at the points, perhaps to a fault. Point men weren’t forcing shots or funneling pucks to the net; instead, they prioritized keeping pucks moving down the wall, extending cycle sequences, and racking up offensive zone possession time.

However, at times when forwards were in trouble on the wall, they would try to feed covered point men, which led to several turnovers high in the offensive zone, one of the more dangerous areas on the ice to cough up pucks.

The cycle was at its best, especially with McTavish’s line, when the Ducks’ F3 would pop high between the defensemen along the blueline to draw the opposing center away from the low slot so they could get shots through easier or more easily win pucks back down low, as they had the numbers and positioning advantage. 



Rush Defense: As has been the case for the entirety of this season, the Ducks played a high-risk, pressure game. Defensemen and F3s made some questionable pinches and pressures low in the offensive zone with the aim to maintain possession.

The difference in this game and why those sequences didn’t cost them can be attributed to two factors: 1. Quality of opponent. Vancouver is at the bottom of the NHL standings for several reasons, and one of them is their lack of team speed and firepower. 2. When Ducks players would pinch or pressure, as a team, they were able to recover well for their pressuring teammate or recover themselves after a failed pinch.

If that aspect of their pressure game can be relied on and fleshed out, it can become a more dangerous weapon while also limiting much of the risk involved.

The Ducks will look to finally, mercifully, clinch a playoff spot for the first time in eight seasons on Tuesday, when they’ll head to St. Paul to take on the Minnesota Wild.

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Takeaways from the Ducks 5-0 Loss to the Predators

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Brayden Pachal scored his first NHL goal of the season and added two assists on Sunday night as the Calgary Flames’ hot streak at home continued with a 4-1 victory over the Utah Mammoth.

Matt Coronato, Connor Zary and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, which is 7-0-1 in its last eight games at home. Dustin Wolf made 28 saves.

Lawson Crouse scored for Utah, which holds the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a three-point lead on the Los Angeles Kings, who have a game in hand.

Vitek Vanecek had 19 stops for Utah.

With both teams playing the second game of back-to-backs, it was Calgary that came out flying with Coronato giving the Flames a 1-0 lead at 7:06 of the first period. When Vanecek misplayed the puck behind his net after colliding with defenseman Ian Cole, Coronato grabbed the loose puck and tucked it into the vacated net.

After a dominant first period in which Calgary took a 2-0 lead and outshot the visitors 14-4, Utah played a better second period, but was unable to solve Wolf.

Among his stops was a key glove save on MacKenzie Weegar when the former Flames defenseman broke in from the blue line all alone.

While Clayton Keller had an assist to extend his point streak to eight games (four goals, 13 assists), Dylan Guenther (six goals, seven assists) and Mikhail Sergachev (zero goals, 12 assists) had their seven-game point streaks come to an end.

Coronato’s goal, which extended his point streak to five games (one goal, four assists), was his 100th NHL point. Rookie left-winger Aydar Suniev had an assist for his first NHL point.

Up next

Mammoth: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.

Flames: The Colorado Avalanche are the visitors on Tuesday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Trading Noah Dobson Montreal last summer may have been the only choice Mathieu Darche had, and it may turn into a long-term win-win for both teams. One year in, with Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson yet to make their NHL debuts — though hopefully the Islanders call up Eklund Tuesday to make Game 82 interesting — it’s too early to judge.

What was strange though, and what remains strange, was seeing much of the reaction toward Dobson from Islanders fans, which so often boiled down to “Good riddance.” Had Dobson — who suffered an upper-body injury on Saturday and will be reevaluated in two weeks, taking him out of at least some of the Habs’ first-round series — made his return to Long Island on Sunday as scheduled for the Islanders’ 4-11 playoff-eliminating loss, it seemed a distinct possibility that he would face boos.

Maybe, and hopefully, that is a misread based on the more online parts of the fan base. When Dobson makes his return to UBS with the Canadiens next season, he ought to be cheered. The 26-year-old was an excellent Islander, always represented the franchise well and has predictably proven hard to replace. One of Lou Lamoriello’s bigger missteps was failing to extend Dobson and treat him like a franchise cornerstone two summers ago. That much is obvious.

It’s hard to say the Islanders would be in playoff position with Dobson now, mainly because you can’t predict the cascading effects of adding his $9.5 million to the cap on the Islanders’ summer. But what you can say with certainty is that the Islanders very badly missed him this season.

That’s nothing against the trade, which was made with the long-term in mind, or Emil Heineman, who played well above expectation in scoring 22 goals and looks like a long-term piece of the puzzle for the Isles. It’s an acknowledgement of something obvious: that a right-handed, puck-moving defenseman who plays over 20 minutes a night is a rare commodity in the NHL, and the Islanders’ blue line lacked depth all season.

There is an idea out there that having Matthew Schaefer allowed the Islanders to trade Dobson without losing anything. Schaefer, though, is left-handed, and no one expected — let alone knew — that he would be so impactful when the deal was made on draft night.

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• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND ISLANDERS STATS

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The Islanders managed to patch the hole on their right side with Tony DeAngelo this season, and would be well-served bringing back No. 77 this summer. It’s no coincidence that much of their collapse happened when DeAngelo was out of the lineup injured; being without a puck-moving righty at a crucial point of the season proved near-impossible to overcome.

Short term, that was about as good a solution as you could expect. Combined with Heineman’s season, and the encouraging developments of Eklund and Aitcheson, and the long term outlook of the deal seems, tentatively, solid.

Still, it is a complicated deal to judge, and a lot needs to go right for the Islanders to feel good about it in five years.

Dobson picked up in Montreal where he left off on Long Island, lugging 22:29 per night with 47 points. He is a frustrating player in that his mistakes seem to always be highlight-worthy in the wrong way. He’s also more than good enough to make that tradeoff worth it.

His injury, and the prospect of being without him in the playoffs, amounts to a major problem for the Canadiens, who usually deploy Dobson and Mike Matheson against the opposition’s top line.

If Eklund becomes a piece of the Islanders’ top-six and Aitcheson a piece of the top-four, on top of Heineman being an annual 20-goal scorer, then of course the Islanders would feel great about it. That is also something like a best-case scenario.

Prospects, even good ones, are unknown commodities. The Islanders have made strides in how they’ve invested in Bridgeport and in player development this season. Still, they are not going to have a 100 percent hit rate. They also could use more consistency from Heineman, which they will hope comes in time for a player still early in his career.

You can safely say now that Darche turned a hard situation into something promising. That was about as much as he could have done upon realizing that Dobson would not be an Islander this season. It was a smart piece of work by a rookie general manager in a situation that could have ended much worse.

Whether the Islanders won the deal, though, is a different question altogether. One season isn’t enough time to answer it.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Marco Rossi scored with 9.5 seconds left in overtime to help the Vancouver Canucks beat Anaheim 4-3 on Sunday night and prevent the Ducks from clinching a playoff spot.

Anaheim has 90 points and can secure a playoff spot with a win Tuesday at Minnesota.

Curtis Douglas, Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser each added a goal for Vancouver. The Canucks' 56 points this season are the fewest in the NHL, 17 fewer than Calgary, the next closest. Nikita Tolopilo had 24 saves.

Cutter Gauthier scored two goals and Leo Carlsson added a goal for the Ducks. Gauthier has a career-high 40 goals this season. The 22-year-old is the fourth player in franchise history to score 40-plus goals in a single season.

Rossi scored with a one-timer from the right circle that beat goaltender Lukas Dostal glove side to win it. Dostal finished with 22 saves.

Gauthier opened the scoring at 3:41 of the first period.

Douglas answered about 10 minutes later and DeBrusk added a power-play goal with 5:23 left until the first intermission that gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead.

Boeser beat Dostal one on one for a short-handed goal at 4:28 of the third period, but Gauthier answered with his second goal 37 seconds later and Carlson made it 3-3 with 13:04 left in regulation.

Up next

Canucks: Host Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Ducks: Visit Minnesota on Tuesday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Game 82 of 2025-26 looks set to be the first preseason game of 2026-27.

After the Islanders were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday with a 4-1 loss to the Canadiens, coach Pete DeBoer indicated he’d like to use the last game of the season — a home match against Carolina on Tuesday — to “see as many guys as possible.”

That may have been a nod to Victor Eklund, who could be in line to make his NHL debut after helping AHL Bridgeport clinch a playoff spot on Sunday night, though it’s unclear whether the Isles will call up the Swede.

Certainly, it seems like Isaiah George should play, and that some call-ups could happen.

“I’ll have to talk to Mathieu [Darche] about roster and some things like that,” DeBoer said. “But for me, the more guys I can see in game action that are potentially part of this going forward, I think that’s important.”

Hired a week ago Sunday, DeBoer was in the awkward position of dealing with a devastated team after just his third game in charge.

“I’m disappointed,” DeBoer said. “I know they were in a good spot a month ago, or coming out of the Olympic break, probably. A lot of work goes into that. I can only speak to the last seven days.

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• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND ISLANDERS STATS

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“These guys have had a lot of stuff thrown at them. One coach left, a new coach came in. A lot of new stuff. So they’re wearing that a little bit and you feel for them. I can tell you I’m proud they didn’t quit. They played right to the buzzer tonight. We know we’ve got a lot of work to do here, but there’s a lot of good things too.”

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Ondrej Palat was a healthy scratch, with Anthony Duclair coming into the lineup for just the second time in the Islanders’ last 11 games.

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Ilya Sorokin started his ninth straight game in net and has now appeared in 14 straight, dating back nearly a month.

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Coach Pete DeBoer ruled out any possibility of Alexander Romanov returning from shoulder surgery in the regular season. The Islanders had liked Romanov’s chances of returning in the playoffs since he got hurt in mid-November, but with a playoff berth highly unlikely, it now appears he won’t be back until training camp.

The Ducks held their annual fan appreciation day Sunday, handing out thousands of gifts, from a new car to team jerseys and gift cards. But the one prize the Ducks’ long-suffering fans really wanted, a playoff berth, remained just out of reach.

Needing a win to clinch a postseason berth for the first time since 2018, the Ducks lost a sloppy 4-3 overtime decision to the Vancouver Canucks, the NHL’s worst team, leaving them a point shy of the playoffs with two games to play. The loss was the seventh in eight games for the Ducks, who have tumbled from first to third in the Pacific Division standings and may now have to settle for a wild-card berth.

So they’ll hit the road Monday for their final two games of the regular season needing one point from games in Minnesota and Nashville. The Ducks could also back into the playoffs if Nashville losses either of its final two games.

“We haven't clinched anything yet,” captain Radko Gudas said. “With two games to play, there's still a lot of work to do, 120 minutes to give it our all and make that push.”

“We just can't be satisfied with what we're at right now,” coach Joel Quenneville agreed. “We didn't make it easy on ourselves, that's for sure.”

The Ducks have already assured themselves of their first winning record since 2017-18 but the playoffs have been the Holy Grail the team has been chasing since then. And it appeared within reach until Marco Rossi scored on a power play with less than 11 seconds left in the extra period, silencing a sellout crowd that had repeatedly peppered the Ducks with rhythmic chants of “We want playoffs!”

“I loved it,” Quenneville said of the chant. “I wanted to complete that wish tonight.”

Read more:Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek agrees to multiyear contract extension

And it looked as if that would happen given the way the Ducks started, with Cutter Gauthier opening the scoring with the first of two goals 3:41 into a feisty and physical first period that was interrupted by seven penalties and two fights.

But Vancouver got the next three scores, taking a 3-1 lead when Brock Boeser intercepted a sloppy Leo Carlsson pass intended for John Carlson in Vancouver’s defensive end, then outskated Carlson the other way before lifting the puck over goaltender Lukas Dostal less than five minutes into the final period.

The shorthanded goal seemed to wake the slumbering Ducks, with Gauthier scoring on a power play 37 seconds later to halve the lead and become the first Duck with 40 goals in a season since Corey Perry in 2013-14.

“It's a huge milestone and something I'm very proud of,” Gauthier said. “But that's not why I'm playing hockey. I’m playing to win games and eventually win a Stanley Cup.”

Carlsson then evened things at 3-3 on a spectacular goal less than two minutes later, backhanding the puck over Canucks goalie Nikita Tolopilo while skating away from the crease for his 29^th goal of the season.

“It was kind of a dagger when they score a shorthanded goal on us,” Gauthier said. “It's supposed to be the opposite way. But I thought we responded really well, obviously tying it back up.”

The Ducks couldn’t keep it there, however, with Chris Kreider taking a slashing penalty with 2:07 left in overtime, giving Vancouver an extra skater. Dostal had kept the Ducks in the game, making seven saves in the extra period, including five huge stops on the power play, but he couldn’t stop Rossi on the final shot, one which sent the Ducks’ fans home disappointed and eager to end to the second-longest playoff drought in the NHL.

“They've been hungry to get back in the playoffs over these last seven years,” said Gauthier, who was in junior high school in Michigan the last time the Ducks played in the postseason. “They're excited for it, we're excited for it. We fell short tonight but we had a great opportunity to go on this road trip and get some get points.”

Actually just one point — the one they left on the ice Sunday — will be enough.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Logan Thompson stopped 24 shots, and the Washington Capitals kept their slim playoff hopes alive by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 Sunday in perhaps the final home of Alex Ovechkin’s brilliant career.

To reach the postseason, the Capitals must defeat Columbus in the season finale Tuesday night and hope Philadelphia fails to win either of its last two games.

The 40-year-old Ovechkin intends to wait until the offseason to decide whether to retire or return for a 22nd season. The all-time NHL leader in goals with 929, Ovechkin has played in every game this season and leads the Capitals in goals (32) and points (63).

The spirited, sellout crowd saluted Ovechkin during the game with chants of “One more year!” and “Ovi! Ovi! Ovi!”

Ovechkin helped seal the victory by picking up an assist on an empty-net goal by Connor McMichael, who scored earlier in the third period.

CANADIENS 4, ISLANDERS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist to pass the 100-point mark for the season and Montreal beat the Islanders 4-1, eliminating New York from playoff contention.

Ivan Demidov, Alex Newhook and Zachary Bolduc also scored for Montreal, which continues its push for home-ice advantage in the opening round and a potential Atlantic Division title. Jacob Fowler made 30 saves, and defenseman Lane Hutson added three assists.

Casey Cizikas scored for New York and Ilya Sorokin stopped 18 shots but the Islanders lost for the sixth time in their last seven games to fall out of postseason contention.

BRUINS 3, BLUE JACKETS 2

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Mark Kastelic scored with 9:38 remaining and Boston snapped a five-game losing streak with a win over Columbus that moved them into the first Eastern Conference wild-card spot while virtually eliminating the Blue Jackets from playoff contention.

Sean Kuraly had a goal and two assists against his former team, and Henri Jokiharju had a goal and an assist for Boston. Kastelic also added an assist. Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves. James Hagens, the seventh overall pick in the 2025 draft, contributed an assist and a penalty in his NHL debut.

Mason Marchment and Adam Fantilli scored for Columbus, which has lost five of its last seven games to fall out of playoff contention after sitting as high as second place in the Metropolitan Division on March 24. Jet Greaves made 19 saves.

The Blue Jackets are two points behind idle Philadelphia and one point behind Washington with a game against the Capitals remaining.

DEVILS 4, SENATORS 2, OT

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Nico Hischier scored his second goal of the game on the power play with 1:45 left in overtime to give New Jersey a win over Ottawa.

The Devils trailed 3-2 after two periods, but Dawson Mercer scored a short-handed goal with 7:32 left in the third period to tie it at 3-3, setting the stage for Hischier’s winner.

Connor Brown also had a short-handed goal for the Devils and Nico Daws made 27 saves.

Michael Amadio, Shane Pinto on the power play, and Fabian Zetterlund all scored in a roughly seven-minute span of the second period for the Senators, who had their four game win streak snapped.

CANUCKS 4, DUCKS 3, OT

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Marco Rossi scored with 9.5 seconds left in overtime to help Vancouver beat Anaheim and prevent the Ducks from clinching a playoff spot.

Anaheim has 90 points and can secure a playoff spot with a win Tuesday at Minnesota.

Curtis Douglas, Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser each added a goal for Vancouver. The Canucks’ 56 points this season are the fewest in the NHL, 17 fewer than Calgary, the next closest. Nikita Tolopilo had 24 saves.

Cutter Gauthier scored two goals and Leo Carlsson added a goal for the Ducks. Gauthier has a career-high 40 goals this season. The 22-year-old is the fourth player in franchise history to score 40-plus goals in a single season.

Rossi scored with a one-timer from the right circle that beat goaltender Lukas Dostal glove side to win it. Dostal finished with 22 saves.

FLAMES 4, MAMMOTH 1

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Brayden Pachal scored his first NHL goal of the season and added two assists as Calgary's hot streak at home continued with a 4-1 victory over Utah.

Matt Coronato, Connor Zary and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, which is 7-0-1 in its last eight games at home. Dustin Wolf made 28 saves.

Lawson Crouse scored for Utah, which holds the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a three-point lead on the Los Angeles Kings, who have a game in hand.

Vitek Vanecek had 19 stops for Utah.

Yes, it's quite difficult to believe that the rivalry between captain Sidney Crosby and captain Alex Ovechkin has been going strong for 21 years.

And what’s even harder to believe is that it may soon be coming to an end.  

When the  Pittsburgh Penguins' and  Washington Capitals' legends met for the first time in 2005, smart phones were not yet invented. Penguins' rookie Ben Kindel was not even born yet. And "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey, "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani, and "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson were dominating the airwaves. 

1,700 points and 900 goals later, the rivalry is still going strong, even if it's different. In celebration of their 75th regular season matchup and 100th overall game against one another - and, potentially, their last - here are 21 stats and factoids for the 21 years of the Crosby-Ovechkin rivalry, with stats provided by Hockey Reference, Quant Hockey, and StatMuse:

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1. On Nov. 22, 2005, Crosby and Ovechkin faced off for the very first time, and Crosby got the better of the night individually with a goal and two points, while Ovechkin registered an assist. Crosby's team also got the win, as he teamed up with Zigmund Palffy on both goals en route to a 5-4 victory.

2. Feb. 3, 2007 - in both players' sophomore seasons and in their sixth matchup against one another - was the first game in which Crosby and Ovechkin were both held pointless in a 2-0 Pittsburgh win. 

3. A year after Crosby won his first Hart Trophy as league MVP, Ovechkin won his first in 2007-08 with a standout 65-goal, 112-point campaign. It was the first and only time Ovechkin has hit the 60-goal mark in his career. 

Top-Five Alex Ovechkin Goals Against PittsburghSunday may have been Alex Ovechkin's final game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, so here's a look at his top-five goals against them.

4. In a seven-game series that featured matching hat tricks by Crosby and Ovechkin in Round Two, Game Two of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the two squared off in the playoffs for the very first time. Ovechkin had the slight edge in points with eight goals and 14 points to Crosby's nine goals and 13 points - but Crosby got the last laugh, as the Penguins won the series and went on to win the franchise's third Stanley Cup - and Crosby's first.

5. It took until Ovechkin's fifth NHL season to outscore Crosby in head-to-head matchups during a season, when Ovechkin registered 10 points to Crosby's seven in four games played. And they finished with a near-identical stat line in 2009-10, as Crosby had 51 goals and 109 points and Ovechkin finished with 50 goals and 109 points - even if it took Ovechkin nine less games to do it. 

6. Despite Crosby playing in only 41 games that season due to a concussion suffered against the Caps during the WInter Classic, he finished 2010-11 with 32 goals - the same number as Ovechkin in 79 games. Ovechkin finished with a career-low 8.7 shooting percentage that season.

With Sid and Ovi heading into their 100th all-time meeting, here's how the two stack up against each other! 👀

📺: @penguins vs. @Capitals TODAY at 3p ET on @NHL_On_TNT and @StreamOnMax! pic.twitter.com/r1NhjtqFSY

— NHL (@NHL) April 12, 2026

7. The two only squared off once in 2011-12, which was on Dec. 1, 2011 - a 2-1 victory for the Penguins. Neither player recorded a point in the affair. 

8. Crosby again got bit by the injury bug during the 2012-13 season with a broken jaw and missed the season's final 12 games, ending his campaign with 56 points and leading the scoring race until the final day of the season. Ovechkin went on to win his third Hart Trophy with 32 goals and 56 points - again tying Crosby in points; except, this time, Crosby was the one who played 12 less games.

9. Crosby dominated the head-to-head in 2013-14, registering three goals and seven points to Ovechkin's one goal in four matchups. Crosby secured his second Hart that season.

10. 2014-15 was a weird season for the NHL, as its leading scorer - Jamie Benn - finished the full 82-game season with 87 points. Crosby and Ovechkin both felt the effects, as they finished with 85 and 81 points, respectively. 

Ovechkin Explains Why He Declined Handshakes From Penguins, Swaps Jerseys & Sticks With CrosbyThe Capitals captain didn't want to put too much stock into goodbyes as his NHL future remains undecided.

11. In 2016, the Penguins and Capitals met for the first time in the playoffs since 2009. Ovechkin got the better of Crosby in that entire series with two goals and seven points, while Crosby had just two assists in six games - but the Penguins, again, went all the way that season.

12. Aside from the Penguins beating the Capitals en route to a second-consecutive Cup, there was a crazy, back-and-forth, track meet-type game on Jan. 16, 2017, when the Penguins won 8-7 in overtime. Crosby amassed four points and was a plus-3, while Ovechkin had two assists and was a minus-4. Ovechkin also recorded his 1,000th NHL point against the Penguins on Jan. 11 that season. 

13. 2018 was finally the Caps' year against the Pens in the playoffs - and it's the last time the two teams have faced off in the playoffs. Crosby and Ovechkin had a pretty even series stats-wise (3G-8A for Crosby, 3G-7A for Ovi), but Crosby was on the ice to witness Evgeny Kuznetsov's series-clinching OT goal in Game 6 - with the assist from Ovechkin - that sent the Caps to the Eastern Conference Final and, eventually, to Ovechkin's first and only Cup.

A #Gr8 showing of respect. pic.twitter.com/DLhaUlkyVb

— x - Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 12, 2026

14. Ovechkin finished the 2018-19 season with 51 goals, capturing his eighth Maurice Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal-scorer. Crosby finished the season with 35 goals and 100 points - the last time Crosby hit the 100-point plateau.

15. In the first of two COVID-19-shortened seasons in 2019-20, Ovechkin was held pointless - while Crosby had two goals and four points in three games - in three matchups between the teams that all took place shortly before the league shutdown. 

16. Although it was another COVID-19-shortened season for the NHL, and divisions were all out of whack. Not only did Crosby and Ovechkin finish with the same number of goals at 24 (Crosby finished with 20 more points at 62), the Penguins and Capitals also tied points-wise (77) at the top of MassMutual East Division - and they also finished with the same number of regulation wins (29). So, the Penguins won the second tiebreaker - regulation plus overtime wins - as they had 34 to the Caps’ 33. 

17. During the 2021-22 season, there was only one goal scored between the two of them in their four head-to-head matchups that season, which was an Ovechkin goal in a 6-3 Capitals’ win on Apr. 9. Ovechkin was a plus-2 in those matchups, while Crosby was a minus-5.

Capitals Fans Gave Alex Ovechkin A Wonderful Send Off, Even If It's Not His Final NHL SeasonAlex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby faced off for the 100th time in their NHL careers in what could be Ovechkin’s final home game as he ponders retirement in the off-season.

18. The 2022-23 season marked the first time both the Penguins and the Capitals had missed the playoffs since the 2005-06 season, when they were the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference. 11 points separated the two teams in 2022-23, and the Penguins missed the postseason by one point. 

19. Ovechkin finished the 2023-24 season with 272 shots on goal, while Crosby finished with 278. It’s the only season across both players’ careers where Crosby finished with more shots on goal than Ovechkin, with Ovechkin playing in only three less games. 

20. The 2024-25 season was an historic one, as both players broke major records set by The Great One. Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s longstanding goal record of 894, while Crosby broke Gretzky’s point-per-game seasons record of 20.

21. Ovechkin and Crosby faced each other twice, with Crosby recording two goals and Ovechkin a goal and three points. They will end the season as the second-oldest (40) and seventh-oldest (38) players in the NHL, respectively, with Colorado Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns being the oldest (41). Burns is the only remaining NHL player to have played in the pre-lockout NHL (2003-04), before Ovechkin and Crosby were drafted.

How The Capitals Have Approached What Could Be Ovechkin's Final Go In D.C.: 'He Never Wants To Make It About Him'Sunday's game could mark Alex Ovechkin's last go-around in D.C.

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All Times EDT

Monday, April 13

MLB

Houston at Seattle, 4:10 p.m.

Arizona at Baltimore, 6:35 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Philadelphia, 6:40 p.m.

Washington at Pittsburgh, 6:40 p.m.

L.A. Angels at N.Y. Yankees, 7:05 p.m.

Miami at Atlanta, 7:15 p.m.

Boston at Minnesota, 7:40 p.m.

Cleveland at St. Louis, 7:45 p.m.

Texas at Athletics, 9:40 p.m.

N.Y. Mets at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10 p.m.

NHL

Carolina at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.

Detroit at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

N.Y. Rangers at Florida, 7 p.m.

Dallas at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.

Minnesota at St. Louis, 8 p.m.

San Jose at Nashville, 8 p.m.

Buffalo at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.

Colorado at Edmonton, 9:30 p.m.

Los Angeles at Seattle, 9:30 p.m.

Winnipeg at Vegas, 10 p.m.

_____

On Sunday, the Chicago Blackhawks were idle. Their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, however, was not. Rockford was at the Allstate Arena to take on the Chicago Wolves for Sunday night hockey. 

Rockford was defeated in regulation by a score of 4-2, but the story of the game was their newest goaltender, Adam Gajan. 

Gajan was a second-round pick, 35th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL Draft. He has had a very interesting year, which included his first pro contract a couple of weeks ago. 

This was the first pro game for Gajan, making his AHL debut with Rockford. Although his team lost, he gave them a chance to win by making 36 saves on 39 shots. 

Gajan looked quite sharp this afternoon, stopping 36 Wolves shots. He more than gave the IceHogs a chance to earn points🎥 pic.twitter.com/VubfDd1TZF

— Dana Grey (@DanaGrey0) April 12, 2026

The IceHogs are the third team that Gajan has played for this season. He was one of the NCAA's top goaltenders with the University of Minnesota Duluth, and he was also a part of Team Slovakia at the Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina. He didn't see any game action there, but it was a great learning experience in the early stages of his development. 

With Gajan making this start, he became the 7th goalie to play for Rockford this season, which sets a team record. Even for an AHL team, where there is a lot of movement between the NHL and ECHL, that's a lot of goalies. 

Next season, the Blackhawks are projected to have Spencer Knight, Arvid Soderblom, Drew Commesso, and Adam Gajan in the mix for different roles. For a kid like Gajan still developing, this was a great start to begin his ascention within the organization that drafted him. 

Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay up to date on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.

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NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Nico Hischier scored his second goal of the game on the power play with 1:45 left in overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night.

The Devils trailed 3-2 after two periods, but Dawson Mercer scored a short-handed goal with 7:32 left in the third period to tie it at 3-3, setting the stage for Hischier's winner.

Connor Brown also had a short-handed goal for the Devils and Nico Daws made 27 saves.

Michael Amadio, Shane Pinto on the power play, and Fabian Zetterlund all scored in a roughly seven-minute span of the second period for the Senators, who had their four game win streak snapped.

Drake Batherson had an assist on Pinto's goal to move into 10th place on the franchise's career scoring list with 363 points. Marian Hossa is ninth with 390. Daniel Alfredsson is first with 1,108 career points with the team.

James Reimer made 26 saves for the Senators.

Hischier gave the Devils a 1-0 lead 5:12 into the game and also had an assist on Mercer's goal. Jack Hughes had two assists for the Devils including one on Hischier's winner.

Up next

Senators: Host Toronto on Wednesday night to end the regular season.

Devils: Play at Boston on Tuesday night to end the regular season.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist to pass the 100-point mark for the season and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Islanders 4-1 on Sunday, eliminating New York from playoff contention.

Ivan Demidov, Alex Newhook and Zachary Bolduc also scored for Montreal, which continues its push for home-ice advantage in the opening round and a potential Atlantic Division title. Jacob Fowler made 30 saves, and defenseman Lane Hutson added three assists.

Casey Cizikas scored for New York and Ilya Sorokin stopped 18 shots but the Islanders lost for the sixth time in their last seven games to fall out of postseason contention.

Montreal broke the game open late in the second period, scoring three goals in a 55-second span.

Suzuki opened the scoring with his 29th goal of the season, reaching the 100-point mark for the first time in his career.

Demidov made it 2-0 just 28 seconds later, finishing a one-timer off Suzuki’s feed on the power play. It was Suzuki’s 72nd assist.

Newhook capped the surge at 16:51 of the second with a wrist shot on a two-on-one rush.

Cizikas redirected a shot from Scott Mayfield to spoil Fowler’s shutout bid midway through the third period.

Up next

Canadiens: Visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night in their regular-season finale.

Islanders: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night to conclude the regular season.

Four weeks ago, it seemed impossible that this feel-good Islanders season would end so soon.

The Islanders had been in a playoff spot since early December. They were buyers at the trade deadline. They were not quite a Cup contender, but with Matthew Schaefer driving the bus, the season’s vibe was impeccable.

Getting eliminated from playoff contention before the last game of the season even took place? Unfathomable, until it became all but inevitable Saturday night. Impossible to digest until it became official, leaving no choice, on Sunday.

The Islanders’ 4-1 loss to Montreal formalized what has been an astonishing, gutting and indicting collapse over the past 25 days. Since losing to Ottawa and falling out of a spot March 19, the Islanders are 4-9-0 in their past 13 games, a .307 points percentage that would rank 32nd in the league by a wide margin over the season.

“You can take a guess how I feel right now,” Casey Cizikas said inside an utterly devastated dressing room. “Frustrated, disappointed. It sucks.”

Since the Devils moved to New Jersey in 1982, this is the first time that all three tristate area teams have failed to make the playoffs in a season.

Had they merely been passably bad as opposed to awful, the Islanders would almost certainly have at least made the playoffs. Had they been average, the Islanders might have home ice in the first round.

Instead, in game after game, the Islanders fell flat. Two nights after that loss in Ottawa, the Islanders fell to pieces in the third period in Montreal. They came out as if it were a preseason game against the Blackhawks, got blown out 8-3 to the Penguins and — in the final blow for coach Patrick Roy — could not muster any desperation or energy whatsoever in must-win games against the Flyers and Hurricanes last weekend.

Then, with Pete DeBoer behind the bench and the Islanders knowing they needed to run the table just to have a shot, an 0-for-5 power play and 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Saturday put their playoff chances into Lloyd Christmas territory.

Reverse just one or two of those results, and the Islanders might be looking forward to the postseason now. Instead, they could barely contain their emotions and shock Sunday night, still in disbelief that a season that had been so promising had ended so terribly.

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• CHECK OUT THE LATEST NHL STANDINGS AND ISLANDERS STATS

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“It’s just like, a bit of a gut punch,” Ryan Pulock said. “I think the first 65, 70 games, how we were so resilient and how much fun it was coming to the rink every day, trying to get back in the playoffs. I think at the start of the year, no one had us anywhere close. Just the finish we had and where we’re at now.

“This league’s tough. It’s tough. Every team is good. It’s such a fine line. You go and compete every night and then when this happens, it sucks.”

The details of Sunday’s match are, largely, immaterial. The Islanders fell apart during a 55-second span in the second period over which they gave up three goals, with Nick Suzuki, Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook doing the scoring. Offensively, they failed to threaten through two periods and failed to build Casey Cizikas’ third-period goal into anything more than a brief spurt of momentum. Zach Bolduc added a fourth for Montreal. The Islanders were left to sit with it.

“There’s not a lot of words, without swearing, [for] how I feel right now and how the group feels,” captain Anders Lee said. “We came up short after putting everything we had towards getting in this year.”

Tuesday’s now-meaningless bout against Carolina might be Lee’s last as an Islander. He is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and after the way this season ended, it seems a distinct possibility that general manager Mathieu Darche will look for serious changes in the roster’s composition.

Exactly what, and how much, changes are the questions facing Darche now.

After two straight seasons without playoff hockey, it’s pivotal to find the right answer.

Just over a month ago, the New York Islanders were comfortably in a playoff spot. Even after a rough road trip out to California, a concerning stretch for sure, it still didn’t seem like the season was in any real peril. And then…

Everyone else in the Metro started surging while the Islanders floundered, going 7-10 to this point, including losing 6 of their last 7 games. The scoring went cold, while the defense fell apart and Ilya Sorokin started to look mortal, his Vezina bid likely slipping away in the process.

And all of that led to Patrick Roy’s dismissal. Mathieu Darche brought in Peter DeBoer with eyes towards next season. If everything worked out, he’d right the ship, go 4-0 in these games, and the Isles would earn a playoff bid in Matthew Schaefer’s first season.

That didn’t happen, though, and now Darche, DeBoer, and the Islanders will have a long offseason to start to set this team up for long-term success. That will probably be without some long time Islanders, but with an aging core and young talent along the way (Bridgeport made the AHL playoffs!), it’s time to make some difficult decisions.

[NHL Gamecenter | Game Summary | Event Summary | Natural Stat Trick]

First Period

Anthony Duclair came into the lineup for Ondrej Palat, and hopefully that was a hint that Palat won’t be part of this team going forward.

The Islanders went to an early power play after Josh Anderson was called for high sticking Carson Soucy, but unsurprisingly, they couldn’t convert on the power play. Jacob Fowler made a good save on Kyle MacLean after the power play expired.

Mat Barzal put a shot off Fowler’s mask, which was the other big chance for the Islanders that period.

Then, Emil Heineman was called for tripping Ivan Demidov, and on that power play, Juraj Slafkovsky whiffed in front of an empty net, and Ilya Sorokin made a big save on Nick Suzuki, the sharpest he’s looked in a few games now.

Second Period

Anthony Duclair shot the puck high over the net while pressured in front.

Scott Mayfield was boarded by Arber Xhekaj, with no call for that. Brayden Schenn came in on Xhekaj, and both of them got roughing penalties. Neither team converted on the 4 on 4, but Mayfield left the game after that hit.

He did return a few minutes later.

Anderson got a breakaway but missed high.

Nick Suzuki then scored to make it 1-0 for the Canadiens. On that play, Matthew Schaefer took a four minute double minor for high sticking, so the Canadiens also picked up a two-minute power play after that as well. And on that power play, Demidov made it 2-0.

And then Alex Newhook made it 3-0 less than 30 seconds later.

Xhekaj was called for roughing, sending the Islanders to the power play, which would continue on into the third period.

Third Period

The Canadiens killed that power play despite one good look from the Islanders.

With 11 minutes left, Casey Cizikas tipped a Mayfield shot past Fowler to make it 3-1.

That gave the Islanders some life, but they couldn’t get anything past Fowler before pulling Sorokin for the extra skater. They couldn’t convert with the net empty, and then Zack Bolduc scored late with Sorokin back in to make it 4-1.

Up Next

Next, the New York Islanders will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, April 14, the last game of the season and Fan Appreciation Night. All eyes will be on whether Matthew Schaefer will break Brian Leetch’s rookie scoring record.

Vancouver Canucks forward Curtis Douglas has scored his first ever NHL goal, tying the game up by a score of 1–1 against the Anaheim Ducks. This is the forward’s third career NHL point, as he has also put up two assists through 41 games during the 2025–26 season. 

‼️ CURTIS DOUGLAS FIRST @NHL GOAL ALERT ‼️ pic.twitter.com/86P80O4YXv

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) April 13, 2026

This is Douglas’ first NHL season, with the forward having made his NHL debut on October 9 against the Ottawa Senators. He scored his first career NHL point on November 12 against the New York Rangers and followed that up with an assist against the Florida Panthers the game after. His goal tonight is his first point as a member of the Canucks. 

Douglas was the Canucks’ lone acquisition on NHL Trade Deadline day. Including tonight, the forward has played in 12 games with the Canucks as well as 29 with the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier on in the season. 

Douglas' first career NHL goal also marked a career milestone for another Canuck. Defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev, who was called-up by Vancouver yesterday, tallied his first NHL point with an assist on the 1-1 goal. 

After tonight, Vancouver will play in their final home game of the season against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm PT.   

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