BOSTON — Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:34 to play and the Ottawa Senators beat Boston 4-2 on Sunday night in the NHL’s rescheduled regular-season finale.
The victory gave the Senators the seventh seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs and a matchup with Montreal and dropped the New York Islanders into eighth and a first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
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The Bruins, who could have won the Northeast Division and earned a No. 2 seed with a win, finish fourth; they will play Toronto in the first round.
The game was originally scheduled for April 15, the day of the Boston Marathon bombings. It was the only NHL game on Sunday, with the rest of the league wrapping up the regular season by Saturday.
Kyle Turris scored an empty-netter with 37 seconds left.
Robin Lehner stopped 34 shots for the Senators, who had not beaten Boston in their previous 14 tries.
Tuukka Rask made 18 saves for Boston, which had won two straight division titles.
Pageau also assisted on Erik Condra’s goal that made it 1-0 with 3 minutes left in the first period. Jared Cowen scored midway through the second to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead.
But the Bruins scored twice — on Rich Peverley’s goal with 3.4 seconds left in the second period and again on Dennis Seidenberg’s goal just 14 seconds into the third.
It was still tied when Pageau swept a rebound past Rask to give the Senators a 3-2 lead. The Bruins couldn’t manage any pressure with Rask pulled for the final minute, and Ottawa clinched it when Erik Karlsson lofted it out of the zone to Turris, who wristed a long shot into the empty net.
Notes: The Bruins handed out their regular-season awards before the game: Patrice Bergeron was the recipient of the Eddie Shore Award for hustle and determination and the Elizabeth Dufresne Trophy for outstanding performance during home games. Gregory Campbell earned the John P. Bucyk Award for off-ice charitable contributions, and the three stars went to Tuukka Rask (first), Bergeron (second) and Tyler Seguin (third). … The rescheduled game almost had to be bumped back when the Celtics’ 1 p.m. game went into overtime. But the Bull Gang got the basketball floor off the ice in time for the 7 p.m. start.
