The three-game sweep of the NHL from Saturday starts in Washington, DC where the Caps were hoping to solidify their hold on the first wild card spot in the East.
But they were looking to do it against the Nashville Predators who are in a dogfight of their own for the top spot in the West.
“Everybody in our division wins every night,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’ve got to keep winning, we’ve got to keep playing. The guys played hard all year and put ourselves in a position to clinch at this point in the season. To earn that — sometimes you get in, you don’t even play; somebody loses, and you get in.”
Winning 4-3 Saturday over the Caps pushed the Preds into the post season just ahead of the Anaheim Ducks.
“I always think it’s a little bit more meaningful when you earn the win and you earn the two points and the right to get in,” Laviolette said.
Mattias Ekholm, Mike Fisher, Filip Forsberg, and Mike Ribeiro scored for Nashville who chased Braden Holtby after he yielded three goals on ten shots in the first period.
“They capitalized on the chances that we gave them,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought [Holtby] would probably say he needs to be a little sharper there. When we weren’t executing, you need a couple big saves.”
In Denver, the Avalanche survived a third period rally by the Buffalo Sabres in a 5-3 win Saturday.
Five different skaters notched goals for the Avs including Marc-Andre Cliche, John Mitchell, Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene and Brad Stuart.
Colorado inched a bit closer to the Winnipeg Jets for a playoff spot but few points are left to be gained.
“There was no need to have the meltdown that we did a little bit there,” said Duchene, who had two assists and scored his 19th goal at 6:56 of the second period for a 4-0 Avalanche lead. “It’s a good lesson going into the next game and something to keep in mind. You never know what can happen, and we need to win every game so we need every goal we can get.”
It was the third period that may have cost the Avs had they not been playing the Sabres.
“I thought we were solid in the first 40 (minutes) and I think at the end we were a little tired and had a bit of lack of focus after we were up by four goals,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “You look at the schedule we’ve been through, four games in six nights, the last three on the road, I have to say I’m not surprised to see that happening.”
In Toronto, there was a Maple Leafs sighting as the Ottawa Senators gave up a 2-0 lead heading into the third and lost 4-3 in extra time.
Tyler Bozak netted a hat trick in the third period for the Leafs and then assisted on the game-winner by Eric Brewer.
“Obviously the way it has been going it was nice to get a few bounces,” Bozak said. “We feel like we haven’t been getting a lot of bounces for a while, but that is no excuse because we haven’t been playing well enough either. It was nice to get a bounce, and then I felt like things started clicking for us. Hopefully we can carry on like that for the rest of the year and finish strong as a team.”
Craig Anderson took the loss and made 27 saves in the effort.
“I think we did a lot of good things, especially in the first two periods,” Anderson said. “It’s a 60-minute game and you have to play it out. You give teams time and space and it comes back to bite you. We gave their best players time and space and that’s what it came down to. Bozak, Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk had a pretty good game and we allowed them to.”
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