NHL Season Ends with The Capitals' Winning Goals and Points Titles - By: Ken Johnson

The Washington Capitals took some time off while the rest of the NHL wrapped up the regular season. Their work was already done Saturday night. They are first in goals, first in points and first in the Southeast Division. The Capitals made their comeback from nowhere to the division title. Ovechkin won the scoring title with 112 points. Ovechkin won the Rookie of the Year trophy in 2006. The points title earned him the Art Ross Trophy and his league-best goal total carries the Maurice Richard Trophy. The MVP award might soon belong to him as well. The Capitals earned the Number 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and will play Philadelphia, who jumped two spots in the East with their final day win.

The New Jersey Devils took home ice advantage away from the New York Rangers in the first round by defeating them for the first time this year, 3-2 in a shootout. The Detroit Red Wings geared up for the playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. The Devils will play the Rangers in the 4 vs. 5 match-up. Both teams knew that they would be first round opponents, but it's questionable as to who would own home ice advantage.

The 16 playoff teams were all decided when the Capitals defeated the Florida Panthers. That got Washington into the postseason party for the first time since 2003, eliminating the Carolina Hurricanes who has led the Southeast most of the year.

Pittsburgh lost to the Penguins, finishing 2nd with 106 points, including 47 goals. Their loss to the Flyers left them in 2nd place in the East and 2 points behind Montreal which didn't even qualify for last year’s playoffs. The Canadians will play their longtime rival, the Boston Bruins, whom they beat in all 8 meetings this year.

The Penguins will play Ottawa Senators, who finished 7th in the East after taking the lead in the conference until the end of February. Ottawa defeated Pittsburgh in 5 games last season on their way to their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals since 1992.

The Red Wings are the big team out West after they got the Presidents’ Trophy for the 6th time in 13 years. With a league-best 115 points, they will start the playoffs against Nashville.

The San Jose Sharks surged to the Pacific Division title on the strength of a season ending 14-2-2 spurt. Evgeni Nabokov led the NHL with 46 wins, topping New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, who had 44 after breaking the league mark with 48 last season. Minnesota will play against Colorado and Anaheim will play Dallas in the other Western series. Red Wings goalies Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood combined to win the Jennings Trophy by allowing a league-low 184 goals for the team.

In other NHL games, Dallas-Jose: 4-2, St. Louis-Columbus: 4-1, Colorado-Minnesota 4-3, Philadelphia-Pittsburgh: 2-0 and Anaheim-Phoenix: 3-2.

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