Capitals: From worst to first
Long before the final horn sounded, the sea of red-clad fans turned the arena into an earsplitting din of cheers for their team, "M-V-P!" chants for Alex Ovechkin, a chorus of "Bruuuuuuce" for their coach. Even "Hip, hip, Hu-et!" for the goaltender.
The owner responded by blowing a kiss to the crowd. After three painful rebuilding seasons of consecutive last-place finishes, the Washington Capitals had a lot of pent-up celebrating to do.
When the clock hit 0:00, Ovechkin jumped into the arms of Cristobel Huet, and the Capitals were finally on the way to the playoffs.
Make room in the postseason for Ovechkin and the Capitals, who needed only 4½ months to go from worst in the NHL to Southeast Division champions. Washington snagged its first postseason berth since 2003 -- and put their Russian superstar and MVP candidate in hockey's showcase tournament for the first time -- with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Florida Panthers on Saturday night in their final regular-season game.
"There's a little bit of destiny in this team," said owner Ted Leonsis, who took part in the "red-out" by wearing a Capitals home jersey. "They're very confident. It might be that they're young and that they don't know history. They don't know about anything but looking forward."
Tomas Fleischmann, trade-deadline pickup Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin scored for the Capitals, whose seven-game winning streak is the franchise's longest in 15 years. Huet, another late-season acquisition, made 25 saves to win his ninth straight start.
The Capitals were easily the worst the NHL had to offer -- 6-14-1 -- when coach Glen Hanlon was fired on Thanksgiving Day and replaced by career minor-league coach Bruce Boudreau.
Canadiens 3, Maple Leafs 1: Chris Higgins scored twice and Mark Streit had a goal and an assist as host Montreal beat Toronto.
Eastern-Conference leading Montreal (47-25-10) has 104 points, 2 more than second-place Pittsburgh, which plays its final game today at Philadelphia.
The Canadiens will claim the conference title if the Penguins lose to the Flyers.
In other games: Keith Tkachuk scored the 498th and 499th goals of his career as host St. Louis beat Columbus 3-0. … Anaheim's Teemu Selanne scored 2 goals, including the winner with 13:32 to play in the Ducks' 4-3 win over host Los Angeles. … Thomas Vanek scored 3 goals and ex-Hawk goalie Jocelyn Thibault shut out host Boston in his first start since Jan. 21 in Buffalo's 3-0 win. … Colby Armstrong scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period for host Atlanta in a 4-1 win over Tampa Bay.