NHL Capsules

NEWARK, N.J. - Martin Brodeur made 16 saves in what might have been his last start in a 20-year career with the Devils, and New Jersey beat Boston 3-2 on Sunday as the Bruins rested many of their stars in preparation for the playoffs.

The soon-to-be 42-year-old Brodeur is in the final year of his contract and is likely to test the free-agent market now that he has become the backup to Cory Schneider.

Defenceman Marek Zidlicky scored twice and Travis Zajac had a goal for the Devils, who have now missed the playoffs two straight seasons after making the Stanley Cup finals in 2012.

Loui Eriksson scored for Boston, which rested eight starters, including Zdeno Chara and No. 1 goalie Tuukka Rask.

New Jersey's Jaromir Jagr had two assists, giving him 1,050 and moving him past Gordie Howe for eighth on the NHL career list.

The Devils announced during the game that coach Pete DeBoer will return next season.

LIGHTNING 1, CAPITALS 0, SO

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tampa Bay wrapped up home-ice advantage for its first-round playoff series against Montreal by edging Washington in a shootout in the regular-season finale.

Matthew Carle scored the only goal in the tiebreaker. The victory clinched second place in the Atlantic Division for Tampa Bay, which finished with 101 points, one more than Montreal.

Tampa Bay will host Montreal in Game 1 on Wednesday night.

Alex Ovechkin finished with an NHL-leading 51 goals, but the Capitals failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07, his second season in the league.

Ovechkin's between-the-legs attempt in the shootout was stopped by goalie Anders Lindback, who also prevented Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov from scoring. It was Lindback's third career shutout, first this season.

The shootout was Washington's NHL-record 21st of the season. The Capitals were 10-11 in those games.

RED WINGS 3, BLUES 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Detroit backup goalie Petr Mrazek kept injury-riddled St. Louis down heading into the playoffs with his second career shutout.

The Blues had been in contention for the No. 1 overall seed but lost their last six and missed a chance at taking the Central Division. Without three of their top five scorers, their top faceoff man and two top defencemen, the Blues were shut out for the second straight game and third time during the slump.

Justin Abdelkader scored twice, Riley Sheahan added a goal, and Pavel Datsyuk had two assists for the Red Wings, who earned the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and will face Boston in the first round of the playoffs.

HURRICANES 6, FLYERS 5, SO

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Eric Staal scored twice in regulation and had the only goal in the shootout to lead Carolina over Philadelphia in the regular-season finale.

Jeff Skinner added a pair of goals for the Hurricanes, who finished seventh in the Metropolitan Division and outside of the playoff picture.

Wayne Simmonds scored twice for the Flyers, who had already wrapped up third place in the Metropolitan. Philadelphia will face the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs.

Cal Heeter made 33 saves in his NHL debut for the Flyers, before stopping one of two shots in the shootout.

Anton Khudobin made 39 saves and stopped all three of shots in the shootout for the Carolina.

ISLANDERS 4, SABRES 3, SO

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Brock Nelson scored with 3:44 left in regulation to force overtime and then netted the decisive shootout goal to lift the New York Islanders to a win over Buffalo in a season-ending matchup of non-playoff teams.

Anders Lee scored twice for the Islanders (34-37-11), who finished with three straight wins. Anders Nilsson stopped 36 shots through overtime and all three he faced in the shootout. Nilsson clinched the victory by using his glove to sweep away a puck that got away from Ville Leino as he drove to the net.

The Islanders rallied from a 2-0 deficit.

Torrey Mitchell, Jamie McBain and Matt Ellis scored for Buffalo (21-51-10), which had already clinched the NHL's worst record. The Sabres went 0-6-1 in their final seven games.

The Sabres wrapped up one of the franchise's worst seasons in 44 years of existence. With 150 goals scored, Buffalo set the NHL-low in the league's post-expansion era that began in 1967.

Buffalo got off to a 2-13-1 start, and ended with a 2-16-2 skid.