DETROIT (AP) — Jesper Bratt’s scored his second goal with 3:34 left in the third period, helping the New Jersey Devils eliminate the Detroit Red Wings from the NHL playoff picture with a 5-3 win on Saturday.

Detroit extended the league’s longest active postseason drought, dating to the 2016 season when the franchise earned a berth for the 25th consecutive season in what was a remarkable run that included four Stanley Cup championships.

The Red Wings were in a playoff position for 148 days of the season, according to Sportradar, to raise expectations higher than they’ve been since the hockey-crazed state has experienced the playoffs a long time ago.

They went ahead against New Jersey in the first, second and third periods — and lost every lead.

On an odd-man rush, Bratt scored the go-ahead goal from the left circle off a perfect pass from Jack Hughes in the right circle with John Gibson flailing around in an attempt to stop the puck. Dawson Mercer added an empty-net goal with a minute left.

Gibson had 27 saves for the Red Wings and Jake Allen stopped 25 shots for the Devils.

LIGHTNING 2, BRUINS 1

BOSTON (AP) — Emil Lilleberg scored on a rebound with 95 seconds left to help Tampa Bay beat Boston, snapping a three-game losing streak and depriving it of a chance to clinch a playoff berth.

Deprived of the chance to win and get in, Boston clinched hours later when Detroit lost in regulation to New Jersey and the Red Wings were eliminated from contention.

Brandon Hagel also scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots for Tampa Bay, which has already clinched a spot in the postseason but had fallen to third in the Atlantic Division.

Morgan Geekie scored and Jeremy Swayman made 22 saves for Boston, which has lost five in a row. The Bruins hold the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference but would have clinched a playoff berth with a victory or even an overtime or shootout loss and help from other teams in the chase.

The Bruins broke the scoreless tie midway through the second period when Charlie McAvoy found Geekie streaking through the middle of the ice, ahead of the defense. Geekie gathered the puck as he crossed between the faceoff circles and beat Vasilevskiy glove side, just inside the post.

Tampa Bay tied it with 13 minutes left when Hagel got behind the Bruins defense and wristed it through Swayman’s legs. It stayed that way until Swayman left a rebound to his left and Lilleberg was there to punch it in.

SENATORS 3, ISLANDERS 0

NEW YORK (AP) — Ridly Greig scored a short-handed goal, Linus Ullmark stopped all 23 shots he faced and Ottawa moved to the verge of clinching a playoff spot by shutting out New York.

Ottawa got into the playoffs a few hours later when Detroit lost at home in regulation to New Jersey and the Red Wings were eliminated. The Islanders’ hopes took another hit with a fifth loss in six games.

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk took a puck up high late in the second period, returned for one shift in the third and then did not return.

Greig made it a 1-0 game with 6:54 remaining in the first. Jake Sanderson scored in the third, and Michael Amadio sealed it with an empty-netter. The Islanders went 0 for 5 on the power play.

New York is now 1-1 since firing coach Patrick Roy and hiring Peter DeBoer as his replacement. Ilya Sorokin allowed two goals on 15 shots.

CAPITALS 6, PENGUINS 3

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ilya Protas scored his first NHL goal and added two assists as the Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Saturday.

The 100th career matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin didn’t materialized. The Penguins opted to sit Crosby and several other regulars after clinching a playoff berth for the first time since the 2021-22 season and home ice advantage throughout the first round.

Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust, Ben Kindel, Parker Wotherspoon, Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar also missed Saturday’s game against Washington, which kept its faint playoff hopes alive.

Ovechkin scored a late empty-net goal to pass Ron Francis for the fifth-most road points in NHL history.

Ryan Leonard scored twice for Washington and became the eighth rookie in team history with 20 goals in a season, Aliaksei Protas scored and Tom Wilson continued a six-game point streak with a goal and an assist, giving him back-to-back 30-goal and 60-point seasons.

Logan Thompson stopped nine shots for the Capitals, who have won six of their last eight games.

Anthony Mantha scored his team-best 32nd goal, while Noel Acciari and Kevin Hayes also scored for Pittsburgh.

KINGS 1, OILERS 0

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anton Forsberg made 27 saves in his third shutout of the season, and Los Angeles greatly bolstered its playoff chances with a victory over Edmonton.

Artemi Panarin scored on a first-period breakaway in the regular-season home finale for the Kings (34-26-19), who won their fourth straight game and moved three points clear of their nearest competitor for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Los Angeles is also just two points behind Vegas and Anaheim for third place in the Pacific Division.

Forsberg earned his 11th career shutout while LA throttled the high-powered Oilers, who have knocked the Kings out of the playoffs in each of the past four postseasons. They also shut down NHL scoring leader Connor McDavid, who was left visibly frustrated after being called for two minor penalties, including a key holding call with 5:33 to play.

Connor Ingram stopped 19 shots for the first-place Oilers, who failed to get the one point necessary to clinch a playoff spot. Edmonton still secured its seventh consecutive trip to the postseason later Saturday when Winnipeg lost to Philadelphia.

STARS 2, RANGERS 0

DALLAS (AP) — Jason Robertson scored a power-play goal midway through the third period and added an empty-netter in the final minute while Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season as Dallas beat New York and clinched second place in the Central Division.

The Stars were already assured of facing the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the NHL playoffs. They secured the position late in the third period when the Wild lost in regulation to the Nashville Predators.

Robertson collected a rebound of Matt Duchene’s shot and flipped a backhander into the far side to beat Igor Shesterkin with 7:11 left to play. Robertson has 44 goals, two short of his career high scored three years ago.

Duchene assisted on both goals.

It was Oettinger’s 34th win of the season. He was on the U.S. men’s team that Rangers coach Mike Sullivan led to the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Shesterkin stopped 17 shots while absorbing only his second regulation loss in 10 career decisions against Dallas.

PREDATORS 2, WILD 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored a goal and added an assist to lead Nashville to a victory over Minnesota, locking the Wild into the third seed in the Western Conference for the playoffs.

Matthew Wood also scored and Justus Annunen made 21 saves for the Predators, 4-1-1 in their last six.

Minnesota will face the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs.

Michael McCarron scored and Jesper Wallstedt made 20 saves for the Wild, losers of two straight.

The Predators are now three points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the Western Conference’s second wild card. The Kings defeated the Edmonton Oilers earlier Saturday. Nashville has two games remaining and the Kings three.

Stamkos scored the game’s first goal with 4:59 remaining in the opening period on a wraparound tucked just inside the left post.

The goal was the 40th of the season for Stamkos, the eighth time in his career that he’s scored 40 or more.

HURRICANES 4, MAMMOTH 1

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Jordan Staal scored and reached 20 goals in a season for the first time in a decade, and Carolina killed four of five penalties in a win over Utah for its sixth win in seven games.

Andrei Svechnikov, Sean Walker and Sebastian Aho also scored for Metropolitan Division champion Carolina. Frederik Andersen made 26 saves. Shayne Gostisbehere and Nikolaj Ehlers had two assists apiece.

Aho returned to the lineup after sitting against Chicago on Thursday.

The Hurricanes are within one point of securing the top seed in the Eastern Conference. Any loss by Buffalo or any point earned by Carolina will clinch it.

Utah’s Dylan Guenther scored his 40th goal of the season and Karel Vejmelka stopped 26 shots for Utah, which had won five straight and scored at least four goals in six consecutive games.

BLUES 5, BLACKHAWKS 3

CHICAGO (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Cam Fowler and Alexey Toropchenko scored in the second period, helping St. Louis beat Chicago.

Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky also scored for St. Louis, which had dropped four of six. Jonatan Berggren and Tyler Tucker had two assists and Joel Hofer made 31 saves.

St. Louis (34-33-12) evened its season series with Chicago at two wins apiece. But the Blues were eliminated from playoff contention with the Los Angeles Kings’ 1-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Ilya Mikheyev had two goals for last-place Chicago, which dropped to 3-9-3 in its past 15 games. Ryan Greene also scored, and Arvid Soderblom stopped 23 shots.

KRAKEN 4, FLAMES 1

SEATTLE (AP) –Nikke Kokko stopped 26 shots in his first NHL start and Matty Beniers scored his 20th goal of the season as Seattle beat Calgary.

The Kraken won their second straight after learning before the game they had been eliminated from playoff contention when the Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers 1-0.

Seattle had lost six straight games before beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in a shootout on Thursday.

Kokko, who made his NHL debut Feb. 25 against the St. Louis Blues and was the youngest goalie to do so at the time, started because each of Seattle’s three goalies were out for different reasons. Starter Joey Daccord and backup Philipp Grubauer had lower-body injuries, and Matt Murray is away from the team tending to a personal matter.

Calgary opened the scoring. Hunter Brzustweicz scored his second of the season with 18:49 to play in the second period. Seattle quickly responded with its first of three consecutive goals.

PANTHERS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 2

TORONTO (AP) — Eetu Luostarinen and Mackie Samoskevich had a goal and two assists each as Florida cruised past Toronto.

Tomas Nosek, with two goals, Cole Reinhardt and A.J. Greer, into the empty net to go along with an assist, provided the rest of the offense for Florida.

Daniil Tarasov made 17 saves for the Panthers, who snapped a four-game slide.

William Nylander replied with a pair of goals for Toronto, which got 19 stops from Joseph Woll in the club’s fifth straight loss.

Both poised to miss the playoffs, the Maple Leafs and Panthers met in the second round of last spring’s postseason, with Florida topping Toronto in seven games before going on to hoist the Stanley Cup for a second straight June.

BLUE JACKETS 5, CANADIENS 2

MONTREAL (AP) — Charlie Coyle scored twice as desperate Columbus rolled to a victory over Montreal.

Boone Jenner, Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko also scored while Jet Greaves stopped 20 shots for Columbus, which is fighting to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Adam Fantilli added two assists.

The Blue Jackets sit outside the playoff picture, two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Cole Caufield — with his 51st of the season — and Josh Anderson scored for playoff-bound Montreal two nights after Caufield scored his 50th in an electric 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jakub Dobes made 28 saves.

FLYERS 7, JETS 1

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Sean Couturier had two goals and an assist and Noah Cates added a short-handed goal and two assists to lead Philadelphia to a win over Winnipeg.

Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler also scored for the Flyers (40-27-12), winners of four of their last five games. Michkov added an assist, and Rasmus Ristolainen finished with two assists. Dan Vladar had 27 saves.

Hadyn Fleury scored for the Jets (35-31-12), who entered the game with a three-game winning streak and victories in five of their last six games to keep their playoff hopes alive. Jonathan Toews extended his point streak to three games with an assist, giving him four points over that stretch.

Connor Hellebuyck, who made his 20th start in the last 22 games, allowed five goals on 20 shots before being replaced for the third period. Eric Comrie allowed goals on his first two shots against and finished with one save.

With the victory, the Flyers complete a two-game series sweep of the Jets. Philadelphia earned a 5-2 win on home ice back in October.

Philadelphia earned a valuable two points to maintain its grip on third place in the Metropolitan Division and remain in the hunt for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, AVALANCHE 2, OT

DENVER (AP) — Jack Eichel scored 1:19 into overtime, and Vegas beat Colorado to secure a playoff berth.

Vegas (91 points) took over the Pacific Division lead from Edmonton with its fifth win in six games since coach John Tortorella was hired to replace Bruce Cassidy. The Oilers, who lost 1-0 at Los Angeles earlier, have 90 points and Anaheim is third with 89 points.

Knights goaltender Carter Hart, who finished with 30 saves, stoned Devon Toews on a shot and Eichel gathered the rebound. He skated down the left boards and beat Mackenzie Blackwood to win it.

Blackwood finished with 26 saves for Colorado, which lost defenseman Josh Manson to an upper-body injury and coach Jared Bednar early in the third period after getting hit in the head with the puck.

Keegan Kolesar was carrying the puck up along the boards in the neutral zone when he lifted it over into the Avs bench and struck Bednar, who went to his knees holding the side of his head.

He was helped to the locker room by one of the team’s trainers and did not return to the bench. He was taken to a hospital after the game for a CT scan.

CANUCKS 4, SHARKS 3, SO

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Linus Karlsson scored in the sixth round of the shootout and Vancouver put San Jose on the brink of playoff elimination with a win.

After each team scored only once in the first five rounds, Karlsson ended the game when he beat Yaroslav Askarov to snap Vancouver’s four-game losing streak and spoil the final home game of a promising season for San Jose.

After finishing last in the league the past two seasons, the Sharks have jumped 30 points in the standings. But they trail Los Angeles by five points with three games remaining in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Igor Chernyshov scored his second goal of the game to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead with 7:16 left in regulation but Teddy Blueger tied it on the power play with 3:00 left.

Marco Rossi and Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Canucks. Kevin Lankinen made 28 saves.