GLENDALE, Ariz. - Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 shots, Martin Hanzal scored in his return to the desert and the Minnesota Wild set a franchise record with their 49th win by beating the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 on Saturday night.

The Wild already clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs and the victory over the Coyotes gave them a franchise record 105 points.

Erik Haula and Eric Staal scored in the first period. Hanzal scored in the third in his first game in Arizona since being traded with Ryan White to Minnesota on Feb. 26

Brendan Perlini scored for the Coyotes and captain Shane Doan had an assist in what may be the final game of his 21-year NHL career.

Mike Smith stopped 41 shots his 312th game with the Coyotes, passing Bob Essensa for most in franchise history.

Doan contemplated retirement last season after leading the Coyotes with 28 goals, deciding over the summer to play at least one more season. Doan's production fell off this season - six goals - but said before the final game of the season that he's not sure if it will be the last one of his career.

Saturday's game was No. 1,540 for Doan, tying him with John Bucyk for 14th on the NHL's all-time list.

Arizona played without All-Star defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who traveled back home following the death of his mother in Sweden. The Wild jumped on the Coyotes early without their best defenseman, scoring two goals by the midpoint of the first period.

Both came on mistakes by Smith.

On the first, Smith tried to pass it out front to Jordan Martinook in front of his own crease. Instead, Jason Pominville intercepted the puck and fed it to Haula, who one-timed it into an empty net.

Staal scored his 28th goal on a power play midway through the first period, ripping a one-timer past Smith after the Coyotes goalie reached down to recover his stick after dropping it earlier.

Perlini scored on a rebound early in the third period, but Hanzal gave the Wild a two-goal lead again a few minutes later.

NOTES: The Arizona Coyotes honored minor leaguer Craig Cunningham and had him drop the ceremonial puck before the game, five months after he collapsed on the ice before a Tucson Roadrunners game and nearly died. ... Hanzal reached 20 goals for the first time in his 11-year career. ... Minnesota has a 14-game points streak against Arizona (11-1-2).

UP NEXT

Wild: Open the playoffs at home next week.

Coyotes: Will have a high draft pick in this year's NHL draft for the second straight season.

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All the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders wanted was for Sunday to matter. It won't.

Both clubs were eliminated from postseason contention Saturday night after the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 to claim the NHL's final playoff spot.

Jon Cooper and Doug Weight's teams played excellent hockey - Nikita Kucherov and Jaroslav Halak, in particular - down the stretch, but it wasn't enough.

The Lightning have 92 points. They had 97 last season, losing the Eastern Conference Final in seven games to the Penguins - the eventual Stanley Cup champions. In other words, more pain for Tampa Bay at the hands of Pittsburgh.

In Brooklyn, the Islanders made a spirited run with Weight behind the bench, even winning four straight to keep the dream alive after captain John Tavares was hurt and lost for the remainder of the regular season on March 31. There's no quit in that club.

The veteran goalie Halak, exiled to the AHL earlier in the season, was the catalyst for the Isles' strong finish, going 6-1 since his recall. He's been superb in April, posting a marvelous .961 save percentage in four wins.

There's going to be a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking with respect to Halak. If the Islanders had called him up sooner, who knows how this race would have ended.

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Rather than hang 'em up, Shawn Thornton opted to throw 'em out.

After announcing that Saturday's game would be his last, the Florida Panthers tough guy tossed his skates in the trash after unlacing them for the final time.

Thornton, twice a Stanley Cup champion, suited up in 706 NHL games, recording 42 goals, 60 assists, and 1,103 penalty minutes. Though his playing days are done, the 39-year-old will reportedly join the business side of the Panthers next season.

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Dude was supposed to be on the bench.

Toronto Maple Leafs backup goaltender Curtis McElhinney was forced into action Saturday in the second period after Frederik Andersen was injured. Andersen left the game and didn't return after he was hit in the head by Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tom Sestito as the forward cut atop the crease.

Fast forward to the third period.

After a wild sequence that saw Pittsburgh go ahead 3-2 on a devastating Maple Leafs own goal, Toronto would tie it up, take a 4-3 lead, and then need McElhinney to make the save of the season - against Sidney Crosby.

Here's some ref-cam action:

Toronto needed two points to clinch a playoff spot in an 82-game season for the first time since 2004. It's been a while. And McElhinney, who ended up with 12 saves and the win, made sure it happened.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs appear optimistic that goaltender Frederik Andersen avoided serious injury after making an early exit from Saturday's playoff-clinching win over Pittsburgh.

So much so, in fact, head coach Mike Babcock isn't ruling Andersen out of Sunday's regular season finale in Columbus.

The tilt with the Blue Jackets is a meaningful one, as a single point earned would propel the Leafs into third place in the Atlantic, thereby setting up an opening-round series with Ottawa instead of Washington.

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Auston Matthews' empty-netter Saturday night did more than help seal the Toronto Maple Leafs' berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The long-range tally was Matthews' 40th of the season, making him just the fourth rookie in NHL history to reach the plateau before turning 20-years-old, per NHL Public Relations.

Matthews' company on the exclusive list? You may have heard of them: Dale Hawerchuk, Pierre Turgeon, and Mario Lemieux.

Not bad.

The 2016 No. 1 overall pick also joined Sidney Crosby and Nikita Kucherov as the only 40-goal scorers in the NHL this season with one day left on the schedule.

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The playoff picture is getting clearer.

The Nashville Predators, after a 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in their final game, are locked into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, and will face the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the postseason.

The most recent meeting between the two clubs in the playoffs was in 2015, with Chicago winning in six games.

Chicago will have home ice through three rounds as the No. 1 seed in the West.

The Blackhawks went 4-1 against the Predators this season, scoring five goals in three of the meetings.

Also confirmed Saturday night was another first-round tilt between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues.

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The Stanley Cup playoffs will feature the Toronto Maple Leafs for only the second time in the shootout era.

The Maple Leafs clinched their first playoff appearance in a full season since 2004 with a win over the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

It's a development few expected after a 30th-place finish last season, but made possible thanks to the infusion of high-end talent via the draft and trades, as well as the dedication and leadership exemplified by veterans who've experience the highs and more frequent lows over the past several years.

Toronto's last playoff appearance, of course, resulted in a seven-game, opening-round loss to the Boston Bruins, highlighted by a near impossible comeback by the latter in the final game. One gets the sense this group is ready to exorcise those demons once and for all.

What's left to be determined is Toronto's first-round opponent, as well as the status of goalie Frederik Andersen, who left the clinching win with an apparent head injury.

For now, Toronto will celebrate, with a final regular-season game against Columbus on tap Sunday. If the Maple Leafs get a point, they'll face Ottawa in the first round. If not, Toronto will have a date with the Washington Capitals.

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Kasperi Kapanen is on the board, and it could not have come at a better time.

With his Toronto Maple Leafs down a goal in the third period of a fairly huge game, the rookie - originally drafted by Pittsburgh - buried the puck past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for the first goal and point of his career.

Full credit to defenseman Matt Hunwick for the ridiculous no-look pass to set it up.

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The St. Louis Blues picked up two points Saturday night in a shootout win, and that means two things: They're locked into third in the Central Division, and they'll face the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs.

The Wild have home ice.

Mike Yeo, now head coach of the Blues after Ken Hitchcock was relieved of his duties earlier in the season, will face his former team. Yeo spent four-and-a-half years behind the Wild bench, from 2011 to 2016.

The clubs last met in the postseason in 2015, also in the first round, with the Wild winning in six games.

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