Senators at Bruins
The Boston Bruins kept their postseason hopes alive with a huge victory over Detroit but still do not have control of their playoff destiny entering Saturday's regular-season finale versus the visiting Ottawa Senators. Boston is tied in points with the Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division, but Detroit owns the tiebreaker with one road game left at the New York Rangers.
The Bruins have two avenues to make it to the postseason: They can make it as the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic with a win Saturday and either a loss by Detroit or a shootout win against the Rangers. Boston also holds a one-point edge over Philadelphia for the final wild card in the Eastern Conference, but the Flyers have two games in hand. If the Bruins knocked off Ottawa, Philadelphia will have to win its final two games to keep Boston out of the playoff picture for the second straight season. "We created that situation, so now we've got to live with it, take care of business the best we can, and still continue to hope for some breaks," Bruins coach Claude Julien said.
TV: 12:30 p.m. ET, RDS, Sportsnet1 (Ottawa), NESN Plus (Boston)
ABOUT THE SENATORS (37-35-9): Mika Zibanejad became the fifth Ottawa player to reach the 20-goal mark in Thursday's 3-1 victory over Florida, but the most memorable tally came from Buddy Robinson, who scored his first NHL goal in his second career game. "It was unbelievable," Robinson said. "It's something you dream about as a kid growing up and you see it go in the back of the net, especially at home, the fans erupt, it's just something you can't really explain. Awesome." Goaltender Andrew Hammond, last season's rookie sensation, will get the start.
ABOUT THE BRUINS (42-30-9): Boston had won only two of its previous 10 games (2-7-1) before turning in a dominant effort against the Red Wings, getting a goal and two assists from defenseman Torey Krug while outshooting Detroit by better than a 2-1 margin (34-15). "The only reason we were able to do that is our forwards backchecked like crazy," Krug said. "It was just a committed defensive effort." Loui Eriksson has tallied three times in the past four games to give the Bruins three 30-goals scorers for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
OVERTIME
1. Hammond won his only career start versus Boston last season, but he allowed four goals in the victory.
2. Although the Bruins lost two of three to the Senators this season, they erupted for a season high-tying total in a 7-3 home win on Dec. 29.
3. Senators F Zack Smith will appear in his 400th NHL game but F Mark Stone and D Marc Methot will sit out the season finale.