![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP-NHL-Caps-1-1100x733.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres right wing Alex Tuch (89) celebrates with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1) after winning an NHL game against New York Rangers Wednesday in New York. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Jason Zucker scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves, and the Buffalo Sabres rallied to beat the New York Rangers 5-3 on Wednesday night.
\nZucker slid his 24th goal past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin at 7:14 after teammate Alex Tuch had tied the contest with his 31st at 5:50 of the third.
\nZach Benson scored twice and Ryan McLeod added a goal for the Sabres, who will participate in the postseason for the first time since 2010-11.
\nThe Sabres won their 48th game in a dramatic turnaround from last year when they had 79 points and missed the playoffs for a 14th straight season. Buffalo is 22-6-3 in its last 31 games, including a league-best 16 wins and 34 points since the Olympic break.
\nAlexis Lafreniere scored twice and Adam Fox also scored for the Rangers in their home finale. Shesterkin had 22 saves.
\nCAPITALS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 0
\nTORONTO (AP) \u2014 Logan Thompson made 21 saves to register his third shutout of the season as Washington breathed life into their fading playoff hopes with a victory over the Toronto.
\nDylan Strome and Martin Fehervary, with a goal and an assist each, Ryan Leonard and Cole Hutson scored for Washington, which sits three points back of the Eastern Conference\u2019s final wild-card spot with three games left on the schedule.
\nAnthony Stolarz suffered a lower-body injury early in the first period after stopping the second of two shots he faced for Toronto.
\nJoseph Woll finished with 14 saves in just over 57 minutes of work for the Maple Leafs, who are set to miss the postseason for the first time since 2016.
\nOILERS 5, SHARKS 2
\nSAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Connor McDavid scored his 15th career hat trick and finished with five points Wednesday night, leading Edmonton to a victory over San Jose that moved them into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division.
\nMcDavid controlled the game almost from the start, scoring on a power play in the first period and then twice in the second to make it 5-2. He also assisted on power-play goals by Vasily Podkolzin and Jack Roslovic to extend his NHL-leading point total to 133. The star center needs three goals in the final three games for his second career 50-goal season.
\nConnor Ingram made eight saves on 10 shots in two periods for Edmonton. Tristan Jarry stopped all four shots he faced in the third.
\nThe win gave the Oilers 90 points, two more than Vegas in the division race. The Golden Knights have one game in hand.
\nMacklin Celebrini scored his 42nd goal for San Jose to give him 108 points this season, the third-most for a teenager behind Wayne Gretzky\u2019s 137 and Sidney Crosby\u2019s 120.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo Sabres right wing Alex Tuch (89) celebrates with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1) after winning an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,2125,62394],"class_list":{"0":"post-549394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkrangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-rangers","15":"tag-uncategorized","16":"tag-zucker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116379397774589869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}