Maple Leafs, Canucks Knock Out Ducks

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks are playoff-bound.

The Mighty Ducks are not.

Needing a victory or a tie in their last game to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Maple Leafs came out flying and didn’t let up in a 6-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night in Toronto.

“I’ll sleep a little easier tonight than had we lost,” Toronto’s Kirk Muller said. “Everyone raised their level and everyone played one of their best games in a long time.”

In Vancouver, Kirk McLean’s second shutout of the season was supplemented by the brilliant offense of left-winger Markus Naslund, who scored three goals, including two in the first period, to beat Calgary, 5-0.

Jyrki Lumme and Russ Courtnall completed the Vancouver scoring as the Canucks finished with a 32-35-15 record. Calgary ended at 34-37-11.

With one day remaining on the regular season, Toronto is fourth with 80 points, followed by Calgary, St. Louis and Vancouver at 79. Winnipeg has 78 and the tie-breaking advantage over Anaheim, which has 76 points and one game to play.

Jason Arnott, with two, and Boris Mironov scored for Edmonton, which was outshot 48-27. Wendel Clark, Mike Gartner, Doug Gilmour, Mats Sundin, Dave Gagner and Brendon Convery scored for the Maple Leafs.

Toronto had a handful of scoring chances in the opening period, but goalie Curtis Joseph was superb.

Joseph made a couple of miscues in the second period which staked the Leafs to a 2-0 lead.

Ottawa 5, New Jersey 2--The Devils become the first team in 26 years to fail to make the playoffs the year after winning the Stanley Cup when they lost 5-2 Saturday in East Rutherford, N.J.

The top-to-bottom trip for the Stanley Cup champions was the sixth in NHL history and the first since the 1969-70 Montreal Canadiens, a team which included current Devil Coach Jacques Lemaire.

The Devils came into their regular-season finale needing to beat Ottawa and hoping Philadelphia beats Tampa Bay this afternoon.

But New Jersey, which has been inconsistent all season, never got past the first step, as Ottawa scored four times in the third period to wipe out a 2-1 deficit.

New York Islanders 5, Montreal 5--Stephane Quintal’s goal with 50 seconds remaining in regulation capped the Canadiens’ three-goal third period at New York and kept alive their chance for home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

Buffalo 3, Washington 2--Pat LaFontaine scored the go-ahead goal with 4:33 left, capping a three-goal third period that lifted the Sabres at Landover, Md.

Hartford 2, Boston 0--Sean Burke made 34 saves and Nelson Emerson had a goal and assist as the Whalers shut out the Bruins in what could have been the Whalers’ last game in Hartford.