The Florida Panthers continue to get some time off to lick their wounds after falling to Buffalo and get healthy (we hope) before facing the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.
Yesterday, the Lightning helped the Panthers out by blanking the Red Wings 3-0 in Detroit, shuffling the wild card standings in the Eastern Conference a bit.
With a 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues, the Pittsburgh Penguins ended a four-game losing streak to reclaim the second wild card. The idle New York Islanders remained in the WC1 spot with 67 points.
The Penguins (58 games played) are up to 65 points while the Sabres (57 games played), Red Wings (58 games played), Panthers (61 games played) and Capitals (61 games played) all have 64.
While only a win away from passing the Penguins, the Cats have their work cut out for them as they are actually 11th in the conference by points percentage.
Today’s wild card games of interest
- Washington (64P) at Buffalo (64P) 1 p.m. (NHL Network)
- New York Islanders (67P) at Winnipeg 3:30 p.m.
- Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh (65P) 6 p.m. (NHL Network)/
Who to root for: Capitals, Jets and Lightning
AHL
After dropping a 6-5 overtime decision to the Providence Bruins on home ice on Friday, the Charlotte Checkers bounced back with a 5-2 road win over the Bridgeport Tigers last night
Gerry Mayhew (15, 16) scored twice and Henry Bowlby (11), Lucas Carlsson (13) and Ethan Keppen (4) also lit the lamp. Assists went to Justin Sourdif (13, 14), Logan Hutsko (17), John Ludvig (9), Aleksi Heponiemi (25), Riley Nash (24) and Patrick Giles (9).
Veteran goaltender J.F. Berube stopped 32 shots to raise his record to 4-2-1.
The Checkers finish off a busy weekend with afternoon game against the Thunderbirds in Springfield.