BOSTON (AP) 鈥 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鈥 hopes of clinching the Atlantic Division title.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have our best game,鈥 Boston captain Brad Marchand said. 鈥淲e played in the third, didn鈥檛 play the first two periods. That鈥檚 too late to start playing. Teams are too good. Doesn鈥檛 matter who it is. You can鈥檛 play one period.鈥
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 loss at home to the Senators.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 play very good the last two games. But other than that, we鈥檝e been playing well. We鈥檝e been playing within the structure and giving ourselves an opportunity to win every night,鈥 Marchand said. 鈥淚f we do that in the playoffs, we鈥檒l be tough to play against.鈥
The Bruins never really recovered after being outshot 11-3 in the opening period. Boston played better in the second, but it wasn't until the third period that the Bruins started to seriously pressure the Senators, outshooting Ottawa 23-2 over the final 20 minutes. And then, they couldn't beat Forsberg.
鈥淭o finish on a positive note after the year we had, it鈥檚 definitely nice. Definitely feel a little bit better about yourself going into the summer. But I know we鈥檙e not winning that game if it鈥檚 not for Forsey and the big saves that he made in the third period,鈥 Ottawa forward Brady Tkachuk said. 鈥淗e was awesome. He stood on his head and made that big save at the right time.鈥
The loss sets up a meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening round of the playoffs.
鈥淩esults-wise, not what we wanted, obviously. Some things to clean up,鈥 said Linus Ullmark, who finished with 17 saves for the Bruins. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good thing we have a couple of days now before the real fun starts."
Pavel Zacha scored for Boston, which won the Presidents' Trophy last season with the league's best record but was knocked out in the opening round of the playoffs.
Smejkal, playing in his 20th career game, got the first goal of the game when he slipped the puck under Ullmark鈥檚 pads as he was hugging the near post 10:03 into the second period. Officials needed a few minutes to review the video before confirming the puck continued across the goal line after hitting Ullmark鈥檚 pads.
鈥淗e was fired up. It was a big goal to kind of get the game going and it was a great shot, too,鈥 Tkachuk said. 鈥淚鈥檓 happy for him. The whole group is happy for him.鈥
The next goal required no replay. Tkachuk started a rush for the Senators and carried the puck into Boston鈥檚 zone before slipping it to Drake Batherson, who crossed it over to Chychrun at the left circle for a wrist shot past Ullmark 51 seconds later.
The Bruins didn鈥檛 score until Zacha got a power-play goal with 7:16 remaining in the third.
Boston got another puck across the line with 6:31 left but it was after a whistle when Forsberg and the Bruins' Trent Frederic exchanged shots during a scrum in front of the net. Forsberg steered away the rest of Boston's chances, stretching out his left pad to stop a point-blank opportunity by Charlie McAvoy with about five minutes remaining.
Zub intercepted a pass by David Pastrnak and scored into an empty net with 1:48 remaining.
NOTES
Tuesday was the final regular-season game for Bruins' television play-by-play announcer Jack Edwards, who announced he is retiring at the end of the playoffs after a 19-year run with the team. The Bruins honoured Edwards and presented him with a commemorative stick during a brief pre-game ceremony.
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