Montreal Canadiens vs Winnipeg Jets
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Where: MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, RDS (Montreal), Sportsnet (Winnipeg)
PREDICTION: Canadiens 4, Jets 3

Oddsmakers currently have the MONTREAL listed as -110-moneyline favorites versus the WINNIPEG, while the game’s total is sitting at 5.5.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The Winnipeg Jets are hoping they can continue scoring by committee until their top sniper returns to the line-up.

The Jets used goals by defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and right winger Blake Wheeler to defeat the Calgary Flames 2-0 at the MTS Centre on Monday night, but other players are hoping to step up into the void left by Patrik Laine’s concussion when they challenge the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.

The 18-year-old rookie, who has 21 goals this season, has been off the ice since being rocked by an open-ice hit from Buffalo’s Jake McCabe on the weekend.

Drew Stafford, who moved up from the fourth line into Laine’s spot alongside left winger Nik Ehlers and center Mark Scheifele, is planning to carry at least his share of the load. The Milwaukee native scored 21 for the Jets last year and notched 31 in the 2010-11 season. He has bulged the twine just three times this season, although he did miss 15 games due to injury.

“This is something I’ve been doing my whole career,” the 31-year-old told the Winnipeg Free Press. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity and will do my best to help this team in whatever way I can and contribute and help win games. If that’s playing there and hopefully providing some offence, it’s something I look forward to and relish the opportunity.”

Stafford assisted on Byfuglien’s goal on Monday night.

Even though Laine wasn’t on the ice yesterday, he did generate some headlines with news that he has been selected to play in the NHL all-star game later this month in Los Angeles. The Jets have not set any timetable for his return but he has been spotted in civvies and smiling during practices. He watched the Calgary game from the press box with his girlfriend.

The Canadiens canceled practice Tuesday morning following their 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals the night before. The Habs will be well-represented in Los Angeles with coach Michel Therrien, defenseman Shea Weber and goalie Carey Price selected for the mid-season festivities.

The netminder, who backstopped Canada to victory in the World Cup in the fall and the 2014 Olympics, hasn’t displayed his all-world form lately, allowing three or more goals in five of his last six starts.

The Canadiens have a 1-2-2 record in those five games and while his overall record remains stellar at 20-6-4, he is ranked fifth in the NHL in save percentage (.928) and sixth in goals-against average (2.12).

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Price wouldn’t set the hockey world on fire this year considering he missed almost all of last season with a serious knee injury.

The Habs were tearing up the league when Price went down in late November immediately went into free-fall, missing the playoffs.

Therrien said even if Price doesn’t play out of his mind this year, he expects his troops to be better equipped to weather any storms.

“Big difference (from last year),” the coach told the Montreal Gazette. “First of all, I’ll say the leadership group is doing a fantastic job. Kids are coming into a really different atmosphere. The team spirit has been great since Day 1 and the leadership group is doing a fantastic job.”

The Canadiens will fly out immediately after Wednesday’s game in advance of meeting the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. It’s expected Al Montoya, who played two seasons with the Jets from 2012-14, will start one of those games.

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Winnipeg Jets vs. Florida Panthers
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Florida

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet Pacific (Winnipeg), FSN Florida
PREDICTION: Jets 4, Panthers 3

Oddsmakers currently have the Panthers listed as 165-moneyline favorites versus the Jets, while the game’s total is sitting at 5½.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Too bad Aleksander Barkov and Patrik Laine won’t be able to meet on the ice Wednesday night at the BB&T Center.

Both are big, talented and young forwards from Tampere, Finland. Both were the No. 2 overall selections in recent NHL drafts — Barkov to the Florida Panthers in 2013 and Laine to the Winnipeg Jets in 2016.

But when the Jets (18-19-3) visit the Panthers (16-14-8) on Wednesday, Barkov is expected to miss the game due to a lower body injury.

During last fall’s World Cup of Hockey 2016 at Toronto, Barkov, 21, played on a Finnish line with Laine, 18, and Sebastian Aho, 19.

Barkov, who is almost always the youngest player on his Panthers line that also includes 44-year-old legend Jaromir Jagr, said it felt odd to play with two younger guys in the World Cup.

“I usually play with Jagr, and he’s 65-year-old,” Barkov joked as he met with the media in Toronto this past September. “It was weird. I was the oldest guy on the line, and I’m only 21.”

Barkov, who suffered an unspecified injury on Dec. 28 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, set career highs last season in goals (28), assists (31) and points (59) in 66 games.

This season, he has nine goals and 18 assists for 27 points in 36 games, establishing himself as one of the league’s best two-way centers.

Laine, pronounced Lie-nay, has already earned a reputation for one of the hardest shots in hockey.

“I’ve never seen a guy shoot the puck like that,” Jets veteran coach Paul Maurice told the media recently.

Among NHL rookies this season, Laine is tied for the lead with Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs in terms of most goals (20), assists (14) and points (34).

Laine is part of an impressive list of players drafted No. 1 or No. 2 overall in the past four years, including Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Matthews, Barkov, Nathan Mackinnon, Sam Reinhart and Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad.

Already this season, Laine has two hat tricks — in his fourth NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and again in Game No. 14 against the Dallas Stars. Both of those performances were home games for Winnipeg.

Laine, though, hasn’t been able to do much to help a defense that ranks 27th in the NHL in killing penalties and 29th in number of goals allowed.

The defense was not very good again on Tuesday night but the Jets managed to outscore the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4.

Laine had one goal and two assists against Tampa Bay as his confidence continues to grow.

“I’ve seen that I can play in this league,” Laine told the media. “I’ve seen that I can play against the best in the world. My teammates agree with me, and that is the most important thing for me.”

Laine, locked in a battle with McDavid for NHL Rookie of the Year honors, is an intense athlete who is not happy at all whenever he doesn’t score.

Imagine his mood when he got off to a slow start in the exhibition season, but he has been rolling ever since.

“It’s a dream come true to be in the NHL,” Laine told The Chicago Tribune recently. “I want to show everyone that I’m a good player. Hopefully I can be the best one day.”

Other story lines for Wednesday’s game:

= Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo is expected to get the start and if so will attempt for the third time to get win No. 448, which would put him in fifth place in the all-time NHL list.

= Going against a trend, Winnipeg outscored Tampa Bay 3-1 in the second period on Sunday. Prior to that, the Jets had outscored opponents 52-25 in the second period.

= The Jets beat the Panthers 4-3 in a shootout on Dec. 15 Bryan Little scored the tying goal and then scored again in the shootout to lead Winnipeg.

= Jets defenseman Tyler Myers is nearing a return. He has missed 24 games this season due to a lower-body injury. However, he had a light on-ice workout on Tuesday.

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Winnipeg Jets vs. Edmonton Oilers
When: 9:30 PM ET, Sunday, December 11, 2016
Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TSN3 (Winnipeg), Sportsnet Oilers, Sportsnet West (Edmonton)
PREDICTION: Oilers 5, Jets 3

EDMONTON, Alberta — The Oilers’ four-game losing streak is an example of how fine the lines in hockey truly are.

Three of the four losses came in either overtime or the shootout; the one regulation loss of the four saw the Oilers establish 2-0 and 5-3 leads at Philadelphia before giving up a late goal to lose, 6-5.

So, you could argue that the Oilers were only a few breaks away from collecting eight out of a possible eight points out of those four games. They ended up with only three.

They will try to change the pattern when they host the Winnipeg Jets Sunday night at Rogers Place. The Jets will come in with tired legs, having lost 6-2 at Calgary Saturday night. It was the Jets’ third loss in a row.

“We’ve got to get the (Calgary loss) out of our mind and focus on tomorrow, and have that fire in our belly,” said Jets center Mark Scheifele, who has 27 points in 27 games this season. “(The Oilers) are a good team, they’re quick, they’re skilled and we’ve got to be ready for them.”

The hottest Oiler is center Leon Draisaitl; he has scored in five of the last six Oilers games, and has nine points over that span. He scored in Friday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild.

“I think I’m pretty confident right now,” said Draisaitl. “The puck seems to bounce my way a little bit, which didn’t happen in the first couple of games.”

But what’s been troubling for the Oilers is they held leads in each of the four straight losses. If the Oilers want to shake the decade-long pattern of missing the playoffs, the team will have to develop the mental toughness needed when it comes to getting up in a game — and seeing it through to the final buzzer.

“It’s been tough on us of late,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan. “The schedule, the way we’ve lost some games, the frustration level goes up and, often, when it happens it sucks a lot of energy out of you.”

But he added that he thought the Oilers’ 3-2 shootout loss in Minnesota on Friday night saw all of his players come out with strong efforts.

Now, the challenge is to turn a strong effort into a winning effort.

The Oilers will face a Jets team that’s already playing back-to-back games for the sixth time this season. By contrast, the Oilers have played just three back-to-backs this year. The game will be the Jets’ fifth in seven games.

The diabolical schedule has not pleased Jets coach Paul Maurice.

“I don’t like our schedule at all. I’ve never seen one like it,” Maurice said. “It may be the new NHL, we just have to get used to it and deal with it.”

Maurice said his team will make full use of two days off at home after they head home from Edmonton.

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New York Rangers vs Winnipeg Jets
When: 8:00 PM ET, Thursday, December 8, 2016
Where: MTS Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba

TV: 8 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), TSN3 (Winnipeg)
PREDICTION: Jets 3, Rangers 2

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — If there ever was a David versus Goliath matchup in the NHL, the New York Rangers versus the Winnipeg Jets is it.

Hockey’s largest population base versus its smallest, a team with more than 90 years of history versus one with just five (in its most recent incarnation), a squad with four Stanley Cup victories and a perennial contender versus one with not only zero championships but not a single playoff game win.

Heck, the original Jets history goes back to the days of the World Hockey Association when the Rangers outbid virtually every other NHL team to sign Swedish superstars Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson away in 1978.

So, yeah, you could say the Jets are polishing up their slingshots in advance of facing the blue shirts Thursday night at 7 p.m. (CST) at the MTS Centre. This is the second and final meeting between the two squads. The Rangers defeated the Jets 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 6.

The Jets have been relying heavily this season on super rookie Patrik Laine, who not only leads all first-year players with 17 goals, but is tied with some guy named Sidney Crosby atop the NHL goal-scoring parade. The Winnipeggers will need some help from some slumping players to take the pressure off the 18-year-old, including his linemate, Nikolaj Ehlers. The 20-year-old notched 15 goals and 38 points last year but has only managed four goals and 19 assists while playing primarily on the top line this season.

He is currently mired in a 14-game goal drought but he’s not losing any sleep over it.

“I’m still scoring points, we’re winning games — it’s not a big deal for me,” Ehlers told the Winnipeg Sun. “So I’m not too worried. But I wouldn’t mind that one goes in soon.”

He’s not getting much sympathy from Laine.

“He can’t score in Playstation, either,” he said.

Presumably, Henrik Lundqvist is between the pipes whenever the two youngsters play the video game version of the Rangers but that won’t be the case on Thursday as backup Antti Raanta will get the start.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said he believes Lundqvist, who hasn’t cracked the top 10 in goals against average, save percentage, win and shutouts this season, has another level.

“He’s our top player, you know. He’s been doing it for quite a few years. I would tell you that you look at any team right now that’s winning and they are getting consistent Grade A goaltending. We’re no different than anybody else. We need consistent Grade A goaltending,” he told the New York Post.

Both teams will be without key cogs in their wheels. The Jets hope to welcome center Mark Scheifele back after missing three games with a lower-body injury but they’ll still be without defenseman Tyler Myers (lower body) and forwards Nic Petan, Shawn Matthias and Joel Armia, all out with lower-body injuries, too.

The most notable absence in the Rangers lineup is center Rick Nash, who is out with a groin injury. Others who won’t be suiting up include forwards Pavel Buchnevich (back spasms), Matt Puempel (concussion) and Mika Zibanejad (broken leg).

If the game turns into a battle of specialty teams, the ice will definitely tilt in favor of the New Yorkers. The Jets’ power play is 21st in the league, operating at 15.5 percent, a significant drop from the Rangers, who are currently in ninth position and 21 percent. The Rangers kill off 84 percent of all the penalties they take, good for 10th in the NHL, far ahead of the Jets, who emerge unscathed from 80 percent of their short-handed situations, or 24th best.

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The Jets’ playoff chances disappeared before their 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Winnipeg finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, one spot out of the playoffs and better than last season.

“I’m going to have a hard time drawing on any positives you know, when you’re going home and watching the important hockey being played from your couch again,” Wheeler said.

“Hopefully, we can all look in the mirror and make a change, I think we’re on the right path, but ninth place is a first-class ticket home.”

The Jets were ahead 2-1 as they started the third period, but most already knew their result wouldn’t be enough to advance.

“We knew after the second we are out,” goaltender Ondrej Pavelec said.

“It’s not an excuse at all but it’s tough to play when you know you’ve got 20 minutes left in the season.”

Both the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators clinched playoff spots with overtime wins Thursday night.

David Desharnais scored the go-ahead goal for Montreal, which came on strong in the third. Rene Bourque, Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher had the others as the Canadiens (28-14-5) broke out of a slump that had seen them lose five of their previous six games.

James Wright and Wheeler scored for the Jets, who finished the season 24-21-3.

Montreal’s win keeps it in the hunt for the top spot in the Northeast Division where it remain tied with Boston.

But the win guarantees the Canadiens at least fourth in the East and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

“It’s a big win against a desperate team,” Montreal captain Brian Gionta said.

“It’s huge. Home ice is really big in the playoffs. … You keep forcing plays, you keep being relentless on the puck, eventually they’re going to turn it over and they’re going to get tired and we took advantage in the third.”

Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, who had two assists Thursday night, agreed with his captain.

“You want to use that fan base to your advantage. Now that we’ve got home-ice advantage we want to use that.”

The game started well for the Jets.

Chris Thorburn and Wright teamed up in the first to put the Jets ahead 1-0. Wright’s wrist shot from the slot found the upper corner of the Montreal net.

But the Canadiens still managed to spend a lot of time in Winnipeg’s zone.

The Jets were outshot 8-5 in the first and had managed only two more midway through the second when Bourque evened things up.

His shot from the faceoff circle found its way through a mad scramble in front of the Winnipeg net.

Wheeler put the Jets ahead again about five minutes later when he dug a puck out of a scrambling Carey Price in front of the Montreal net and slipped it in.

The third was only about two minutes old when Pavelec intercepted Gallagher’s shot, only to see it rise high in the air and bounce behind him, dribbling over the line before he could grab it.

Desharnais then scored on a 5-on-3 in the third to put the Canadians ahead for the first time.

Pacioretty scored later in the period for a little insurance.

The Jets looked like a good bet to make the postseason until a five-game slide. Even a 6-1-1 record in their last eight games failed to make up all the lost ground.

Their only chance was to win Thursday and have both New York and Ottawa lose all their remaining games.

Coach Claude Noel said he would talk about Winnipeg’s season and future Friday and confined his brief comments to the game.

“I thought the game was OK. They spent too much time in our zone, which I didn’t really like. … I would have liked us to play with a little more zip in the first two periods,” he said.

Note: Jets captain and scoring leader Andrew Ladd finished the season with the best points-per-game average by a Jets (Thrashers) player since Ilya Kovalchuk in 2008-09.

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Must have tasted pretty good.

Karlsson spent the evening on the ice for the first time in about 2½ months, and he and the Ottawa Senators are heading back to the NHL postseason.

They might even wind up back in the same arena next week.

Sergei Gonchar scored a power-play goal 47 seconds into overtime on Karlsson’s second assist of his successful and sooner-than-anticipated return from a torn Achilles tendon, and Ottawa clinched a playoff berth by beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 on Thursday night.

“I would have been happy if I sat in the stands and we would have won this game, as well, I think, and that’s the main goal,” Karlsson said. “I’m going to have to work on my stuff, and as long as this team keeps winning, I’m going to be happy.”

The overtime wins by the Senators and New York Rangers eliminated the Winnipeg Jets from the playoff chase.

Ottawa had lost its previous two games.

“I’m just glad to put all the doubters behind us,” said Craig Anderson, who made 19 saves. “We lost a couple games there … and I think that was kind of the talk: Are we going to fold the tent and go home? But I think we all kind of strapped on the belt and went to work and found ways to make people believers.”

The only shot that got past him was Alex Ovechkin’s NHL-leading 32nd goal, which tied the game 8½ minutes into the third period.

But ex-Capitals defenseman Gonchar took a pass from Karlsson and put the winner past Michal Neuvirth, who made 39 saves.

The Southeast Division champion Capitals had nothing at stake. They already are locked into the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Senators, who have two games left, moved up to sixth in the East. If they remain there, Ottawa would face the Capitals, who have won 10 of 12 overall — with the only losses against the Senators.

“If we end up playing them, we’ll be ready,” Washington’s first-year coach Adam Oates said.

Ottawa won all three regular-season matchups against the Capitals.

“We just came out flat,” Washington defenseman Mike Green said. “I don’t know what it is the last couple times we’ve played against them. But it’s the way it’s gone.”

The Capitals secured their sixth consecutive playoff appearance by clinching the division title with a 5-3 victory over Winnipeg on Tuesday.

So while the Capitals didn’t need a victory on Thursday, the Senators most certainly did.

“It was a big game,” Neuvirth pointed out, “for them.”

For Karlsson, last season’s Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman, this was his first game since Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke stepped on the back of his leg on Feb. 13.

Karlsson originally was expected to miss the rest of the season after surgery, but recently returned to practice. He sat out 31 games, but now is back in time to get into game shape ahead of the playoffs.

“I felt OK,” Karlsson said. “Did battle some issues out there, and didn’t feel quite as comfortable as I’m used to, but overall I think it was a solid game. I still have to work through some mistakes and clean those up.”

Karlsson played a game-high 27-plus minutes and managed to demonstrate just how valuable he is.

With the game scoreless 12:35 into the second period, from barely inside the blue line, he shook his stick to get the attention of Milan Michalek, whose pass was strongly one-timed by Karlsson toward the net. The puck was redirected by Jakob Silfverberg. Then came the set up for Gonchar.

“Obviously, our team was a different team with him on the ice, and the things that he can do that others can’t do. He’s a very special player,” Senators coach Paul MacLean said about Karlsson. “He’s done, obviously, a ton of work.”

Silfverberg briefly stayed down on the ice with about three minutes left after appearing to take a glove to the face from Capitals defenseman Steve Oleksy. No penalty was called.

But Capitals forward Mike Ribeiro was sent to the box twice in the final five minutes of regulation, and teammate Jason Chimera was given a 10-minute misconduct in the last minute. The game was chippy throughout, including a scrum involving eight players along the boards earlier in the third period. The first period had a handful of near-fights and some late hits.

Ovechkin scored his fourth goal in three games, but his first point against Ottawa this season.

He gathered the puck near the boards on the right side — Oates moved him from left wing — and swept in front of the net with defenseman Chris Phillips riding his back, before flipping a backhander past Anderson.

Nearly seated on the ice afterward, Ovechkin spun around and kissed his glove, while fans responded with loud chants of “M-V-P!”

Game notes

It was Ovechkin’s 600th NHL game. … Ottawa will play at home against Philadelphia on Saturday, and at the Bruins on Sunday in a game rescheduled because of the Boston Marathon bombings. … The Capitals finish the regular season Saturday against visiting Boston.

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The Islanders clinched an Eastern Conference playoff spot despite a 4-3 shootout loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday night. With the point they received by reaching overtime, coupled with a loss by the Winnipeg Jets at Washington, the Islanders secured a place in the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

“We got the point, and we secured our spot,” defenseman Andrew MacDonald said, “so we couldn’t be happier.”

John Tavares scored the goal that effectively sent them to the postseason, tying it with 1:01 left in regulation.

“We got our game going, and we got contributions from everybody and started to figure out what it takes to win,” Tavares said, reflecting on the season. “And you know we’re happy to be there and give ourselves an opportunity to compete in the playoffs. A lot of us haven’t had that experience.”

Josh Bailey and Brad Boyes also scored, and Evgeni Nabokov made 29 saves for the Islanders.

Riley Nash and Jeff Skinner scored in the shootout to give the Hurricanes the victory. Nash’s score came on his first career shootout attempt and only came about because coach Kirk Muller caught him showing off some moves during the morning skate.

“We just winged it, to be honest with you,” Muller said. “He had a couple good moves and, you know what, let’s see if he can do it in the game. … If I didn’t see him do it this morning, we probably wouldn’t have opted to do it.”

Carolina’s Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist, Patrick Dwyer and Alexander Semin added goals, and Dan Ellis made 36 saves before stopping Frans Nielsen and Boyes in the shootout.

Nash and Skinner beat Nabokov with wrist shots in the shootout to help the Hurricanes sweep the soon-to-be division rival Islanders and earn their first consecutive wins since March 9-12.

“We’re starting to find our identity, and that’s important going into next year,” Ellis said. “For us to come up with big games against teams that are going to be in our division next year, it was a great effort. We really started to get our work boots on, play a smarter brand of hockey and we did really well tonight and got a big win.”

In earning a point for the 11th straight game, the Islanders (8-0-3 in April) wiped out three one-goal deficits — and the last came in dramatic fashion.

“It wasn’t our best game, but we found a way to get a big one late and get the point that we needed,” Bailey said.

Tavares made it 3-3 when his shot clicked off Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk’s skate and past Ellis. The goal originally was awarded to Kyle Okposo, but a review determined that he never touched the puck. Okposo finished with two assists.

Before that, the Hurricanes thought their third victory over the Islanders was firmly in hand.

Carolina went up 3-2 with 2:15 left in the second when Dwyer snapped a loose puck past Nabokov — the third in a series of short-lived leads for the Hurricanes.

Staal and Semin also put them up briefly, only to have the Islanders respond with tying goals. Staal made it 2-1 by scoring on a redirection with 3:40 left in the first, and Semin scored the first goal off a pretty give-and-go-feed from Eric Staal.

But Bailey and Boyes each erased those deficits. Bailey’s goal came on a rebound and made it 2-2 at 7:34 of the second. Boyes forged the first tie at 6:04 of the first when Mark Streit’s cross-ice pass clicked off his skate and past Ellis.

Game notes

New York C Keith Aucoin hit the crossbar on a breakaway about 4 1/2 minutes in. Michael Grabner struck the right post with about 3 minutes left in overtime. … Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu drilled the right post against an open net with about 12 1/2 minutes left. … Hurricanes C Jiri Tlusty, who assisted on Staal’s goal, has points in six straight games.

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Yet here they are, postseason-bound with two games to spare, quite the achievement for Alex Ovechkin and first-year coach Adam Oates. Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets clinched the Southeast Division for the Capitals, who were next-to-last in the Eastern Conference as recently as March 21.

“I remember 20 games ago looking at the schedule,” said Mathieu Perreault, one of five Capitals to score a goal Tuesday. “Like, ‘Man, we’re probably going to have to go 16-4 to get in’ — and basically did it. It almost looked impossible if you look back 20 games, but this team has got so much character, and they found a way to do it.”

If the Capitals win their final two, they will indeed finish with 16 wins in 20 games, but that would be gravy at this point. They’re in the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, a run that includes five Southeast titles. As a bonus, they will leapfrog several teams with better records and enter the playoffs as the conference’s No. 3 seed for winning their division, even if it is the weakest division in the NHL.

“We had a lousy start,” Oates said. “And I don’t think many of us thought we would come this far. But we obviously put some really good hockey together, and the guys have grown and it’s obviously a good feeling right now.”

The Capitals blew a two-goal lead, survived a pair of replay reviews and exhaled deeply when defensemen John Erskine cleared two shots off the goal line. They also had to kill off a power play with a one-goal lead late in the game, but they held to win for the 10th time in 11 games.

Ovechkin scored his league-leading 31st goal — an empty-netter in the final minute — and Matt Hendricks, Jason Chimera and Nicklas Backstrom also scored. Braden Holtby made 24 saves for the Capitals.

The loss keeps the Jets in ninth place in the East, one spot away from the playoffs but with slim chances of moving up because they have only one game remaining. They trail the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators by one point, but the Rangers have two games left and the Senators have three.

“It was basically our Game 7 in the playoffs,” said Nik Antropov, who scored Winnipeg’s third goal. “And it’s frustrating to lose that way.”

Evander Kane and Blake Wheeler also scored for the Jets, who had won six of seven but were playing the second half of a road back-to-back after beating the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.

“We played too cute,” Winnipeg coach Claude Noel said. “There was no way we were going to be able to match their skill level and to play the way that they played. We had to do some things that to me that we didn’t do.”

Hendricks and Chimera gave the Capitals a 2-0 lead after the first period, but the score would have been tied if not for Erskine, who cleared Bryan Little’s shot off the line when Holtby was caught out of position and later arrived just in time to get his stick on a bouncing puck that had dribbled down the goaltender’s back on a tip by Aaron Gagnon. The puck was some 90 percent across the line — but not all the way, and the no-goal call was upheld by video review.

“He’s our third goalie right now,” Ovechkin said with a smile.

The Jets did pull even in the second period when Kane and Wheeler scored, but it took just 37 seconds for the Capitals to regain the lead when Backstrom’s right skate neatly redirected a centering pass from Ovechkin. The replay review determined that Backstrom didn’t use a deliberate kicking motion, and the goal was upheld.

Perreault doubled the lead by putting in a rebound late in the second period, but Antropov beat Holtby stick-side with 8:10 remaining in the third to pull the Jets within one.

Perrault was whistled for high sticking with 5:16 remaining, but the Capitals killed off the penalty without allowing a shot. Ovechkin capped the celebration with the empty-netter, prompting chants of “M-V-P!” throughout the sold-out arena.

“The way we started, there were a lot of doubters,” Hendricks said. “Our fans were against us a little bit, the media was hard on us a little bit. But we came and did what we set out to do.”

Game notes

Antropov returned after missing eight games with a lower body injury. Jets F Kyle Wellwood was out with a significant injury to his right hand from blocking a shot during Monday’s win at Buffalo. … Ovechkin set an NHL record with his goal, although it’s one that probably deserves an asterisk. It was his 13th in the month of April, an accomplishment made easier because the lockout-modified schedule is extending the regular season deeper into the month than usual. The previous record of 12 was set by Mario Lemieux in 1993 and tied by Winnipeg’s Alex Zhamnov in 1995.

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The announcement was made on the team’s Twitter account and confirmed by Sabres spokesman Michael Gilbert on Wednesday. Ruff was relieved of his duties shortly after the team held a 90-minute practice, and a day after the Sabres were booed several times by their home fans during a 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

The Sabres (6-10-1) have gone 4-10-1 since opening the season with two wins.

With a 571-432-162 record, Ruff was the team’s winningest coach. In his 16th season, he was also the active leader among NHL coaches with the same team.

The Sabres, who play at Toronto on Thursday, have not yet named a replacement. General manager Darcy Regier was scheduled to address reporters later Wednesday.

The news came as a surprise only because Sabres management, including team president Ted Black, had spent much of the past week voicing its support of Ruff. Team owner Terry Pegula was also regarded as a big fan of Ruff.

Pegula, however, was running out of options in his bid to turn the Sabres into a Stanley Cup contender, an objective he made clear upon purchasing the team two years ago. Ruff’s firing comes nearly two years to the day Pegula formally took over as the Sabres owner on Feb. 22, 2011.

Ruff was becoming increasingly aware that his job was on the line. Last week, he described the Sabres’ struggles as being “his mess,” while adding he wasn’t done trying to clean them up.

On Wednesday, he abruptly cut short his availability with reporters by hinting that changes were coming because “it isn’t working the way we’re going.” He didn’t specify what those changes might be.

Under Ruff, the Sabres made the playoffs in each of his first four seasons and eight times overall. That included a surprising run to the Stanley Cup finals in 1999, when Buffalo was eliminated by Dallas in six games.

The Sabres, however, haven’t been the same since they reached the Eastern Conference finals — losing both times — in both 2006 and ’07. Buffalo has missed the playoffs in three of the past five seasons.

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None of these averages includes club, premium or suite tickets.

After a four-month lockout, the NHL began play in January and season-ticket prices went up 5.7 percent, according to the recently released Team Marketing Report Fan Cost Index. The average season ticket for non-premium seats is $61.01. As usual, ticket prices were set well before the season.

The NBA’s average ticket went up 3.5 percent to $50.99 and the NFL’s went up 2.5 percent to $78.38. The average MLB ticket for the 2012 season was even at $26.98.

In the previous season, the NHL raised prices by 4.8 percent, while the NBA (1.7 percent), NFL (1.2 percent) and MLB (1.2 percent for 2011 season) had smaller increases.

Increased ticket prices, prior knowledge of a looming lockout and theoretical bad feelings of fans haven’t hurt NHL ticket sales this season. Through games of Feb. 12, the NHL had an average attendance of 17,652, a 1.1 percent increase from last season’s average of 17,455. Last season, the NHL had a 1.8 percent increase in attendance with 15 teams drawing average crowds with 100 percent or higher of capacity.

Team Marketing Report arranges its study through Fan Cost Index prices. The Fan Cost Index is the price to take a family of four to a game, including tickets, drinks, hot dogs, parking and the like. The NHL average this season is $354.82, a 7.9 percent increase from last season’s survey.

As usual, Canadian teams rule the top of the list. The Toronto Maple Leafs have the most expensive average ticket at $124.69 (converted to U.S. dollars), followed by the Winnipeg Jets at $97.84, Vancouver Canucks at $87.38, Edmonton Oilers at $79.27 and Montreal Canadiens at $78.56. according to TMR research.

The Washington Capitals ($79.25), New York Rangers ($72.04) and Philadelphia Flyers ($71.59) are the top American terms in terms of average ticket price. Nineteen teams raised prices by more than one percent, while only three reported decreases.

The Buffalo Sabres reported the largest percentage increase at 26.7 percent, which brings their average ticket to $46.15, the seventh-cheapest ticket.

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