The Washington Capitals secured the last ticket for the Eastern Conference play-offs in the National Hockey League (NHL) on Tuesday evening (local time). The Capitals celebrated a narrow 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers and thus retained the upper hand over the Detroit Red Wings, who had the same number of points, due to their higher number of wins in the regular season. For the Red Wings, a narrow 5-4 win in the penalty shootout against the Montreal Canadiens was not enough.
The decision about promotion to the play-offs was made in a dramatic way. In Montreal, Detroit equalized with 3.3 seconds left thanks to David Perron. Patrick Kane secured the extra point for the guests in the shootout.
At the same time, the Philadelphia Flyers, who would have needed a win in regular time and a Detroit defeat to preserve their small play-off chance, took their goalkeeper several minutes before the end, unaware of the score in Montreal, when the score was 1-1 from the ice.
But instead of forcing victory with one more man, Washington’s TJ Oshie shot the puck into the empty net and the Capitals into the knockout round. The season is over for Philadelphia and Detroit.
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