Jiri Smejkal gets 1st goal, Senators beat Bruins 3
BOSTON (AP) — Jiri Smejkal scored his first career goal midway through the second period and Jakob Chychrun scored less than a minute later as the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Tuesday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Artem Zub added an empty-net goal with 1:48 remaining and Anton Forsberg had 34 saves for the Senators, who avoided a three-game season series sweep by Boston and helped spoil the Bruins’ hopes of clinching the Atlantic Division title.
“We didn’t have our best game,” Boston captain Brad Marchand said. “We played in the third, didn’t play the first two periods. That’s too late to start playing. Teams are too good. Doesn’t matter who it is. You can’t play one period.”
The Bruins entered the day leading second-place Florida by one point, but the Panthers beat Toronto 5-2 to pass the Bruins for the top spot in the Division. Boston squandered back-to-back chances to clinch the division by getting shut out at Washington 2-0 on Monday, then a losing at home to the Senators.