With a 19-save effort, Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby recorded his 48th win of the year against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, tying Martin Brodeur's all-time, single-season record in 12 fewer games.

The 26-year-old became the first goalie to post a 45-win season in under 70 games, and the first in the shootout era to accomplish the feat in less than 75. Flyers legend Bernie Parent held the single-season record for 33 years, before Brodeur passed him in 2007.

45-win seasons

It was fitting Holtby reached the milestone in St. Louis, where Brodeur finished his legendary playing career and currently serves as assistant general manager.

Holtby became the 13th goalie in NHL history to record multiple 40-win seasons, and the seventh to do it in consecutive years. Since the beginning of the 2012-13 season, the Saskatchewan native ranks first in wins (135) and second in shutouts (20), per a Capitals release.

With one game remaining in the regular season, head coach Barry Trotz has said backup Philipp Grubauer will start in Sunday's season finale, but we'll have to wait and see if he has a change of heart with history on the line.

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With his third goal of the game against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin picked up his 50th goal of the season.

It marks the third straight season and the seventh time in his career that he has hit the milestone.

Ovechkin entered Saturday's contest three goals shy of the half-century mark with just two games remaining.

The goal also makes Ovechkin the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in three consecutive seasons twice, doing so between 2007 and 2010 and 2013 to 2016.

This season will also mark the third straight in which Ovechkin has been the only player to hit the 50-goal plateau.

In case there wasn't enough history behind the goal, it also helped the 30-year-old pass Brian Trottier for 33rd on the league's all-time goals list.

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Patrik Elias may have closed out his NHL career in style.

The New Jersey Devils franchise-leader in goals, assists, and points picked up what could be the final goal of his storybook career.

With under 16 seconds left in game 82 of the season, Elias fired the puck past Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Garret Sparks to conclude the 5-1 win.

Following Saturday's game the Prudential Center crowd serenaded the franchise-great.

Many expect Elias to announce his retirement in the summer as the 39-year-old's contract expires. He was limited to just 16 games this season thanks to a significant knee injury.

If Saturday was indeed Elias' last hurrah, he will finish with 408 goals and 1,023 points in 1,240 games.

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The Philadelphia Flyers clinched a playoff berth Saturday with a 3-1 win over the rival Pittsburgh Penguins, and all players had one man on their mind - team owner Ed Snider, who hadn't been able to attend games this season due to illness.

Related: Flyers clinch final East playoff berth, eliminate Bruins

"It's unfortunate Mr. Snider couldn't be here with us today," forward Wayne Simmonds said, according to Sam Carchidi of Philly.com. "Obviously this organization owes everything to Mr. Snider. If it wasn't for Mr. Snider, not one person in this dressing room would be here, so we played our hearts out.

"We owe him a lot, and we still owe him."

The Flyers visited Snider at his California mansion during a west-coast road trip in late December. At the time, the team was middling with a 15-15-7 record. Since then, they've gone 25-12-7, and set up a first-round playoff date with the Washington Capitals.

"It's special to play for Mr. Snider," added Ryan White. "I've only been here a short time, but to have an owner like that, I get goose bumps just talking about it. He's the face of the franchise, and we're going to keep on doing it for him, for sure."

Prior to the game, anthem singer Lauren Hart sang "God Bless America" along with a video of the legendary Kate Smith, but this time, while FaceTiming Snider - who blew kisses to Hart in return.

"That's awesome," goalie Steve Mason said, unaware Hart was FaceTiming the owner. "He's the face of this franchise. Even though he hasn't been around, he hasn't been forgotten, that's for sure. We just want to make him proud as we go on here. We know he's watching, so that's all the motivation we need."

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Pain may turn out to be pleasure for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

By losing 5-1 to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, the Maple Leafs guaranteed themselves a last-place finish in the standings, their 69 points and 23 regulation and overtime wins the fewest among the 30 NHL teams. Toronto finishes 29-42-11.

The Maple Leafs now officially have the best odds - 20 percent - of winning the April 30 draft lottery. American 18-year-old Auston Matthews, who spent the 2015-16 season playing in Switzerland, is the presumptive No. 1 pick. Matthews had 24 goals and 22 assists in 36 regular-season games, and added three assists in four playoff games.

Toronto has a total of 12 picks in the coming draft. The last time the Maple Leafs selected first overall, they drafted Wendel Clark in 1985.

The Edmonton Oilers finish 29th and have the second-best lottery odds, at 13.5 percent.

Goaltender Garret Sparks was integral in Toronto's 30th-place finish. He lost his last five games, including Saturday's finale. Sparks was given a share of the crease after the Maple Leafs traded James Reimer, who was having one of the best seasons of his career, to the San Jose Sharks.

Reimer was one of numerous Maple Leafs to be traded in head coach Mike Babcock's first season behind the Toronto bench. General manager Lou Lamoriello dealt captain Dion Phaneuf to the Ottawa Senators, veteran Roman Polak to the Sharks, Shawn Matthias to the Colorado Avalanche, and Daniel Winnik to the Washington Capitals.

In the process, countless young players thought to be the future of the rebuilding Maple Leafs made their NHL debuts in the second half of the season, including William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Kasperi Kapanen, and Frederik Gauthier.

Babcock set the bar as low as he could when he arrived in Toronto. He predicted pain. Whether Toronto selects first overall or not, that pain will turn out to be another key piece of what appears to be, for now, a bright future.

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Ryan Ellis held nothing back collecting his 10th goal of the season.

The Nashville Predators defenseman reached a career-high in goals Saturday in powerful fashion blowing the top off of Antti Niemi's water bottle.

The goal gave the Predators a 1-0 lead as the club looks to play spoiler to the Dallas Stars who are looking to clinch top spot in the Western Conference.

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DENVER - Jakob Silfverberg scored twice, Corey Perry had three assists and the playoff-bound Anaheim Ducks beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Saturday.

Cam Fowler, Ryan Garbutt and Ryan Getzlaf also scored for Anaheim, which still has a chance at the Pacific Division title should Los Angeles lose Saturday night and the Ducks get at least a point Sunday in Washington. That game is a makeup from January when it was postponed because of a snowstorm.

The win also helped the team post their third consecutive 100-point season, setting a new franchise record. It's their fifth time hitting the century mark in team history.

The Ducks scratched 11 players, but they still had enough punch to jump to a 3-0 lead and withstand Colorado's second-period rally.

Nick Holden, Jarome Iginla and Zach Redmond scored as the Avalanche wrapped up the season by dropping eight of their last nine to miss the playoffs for a second straight year. Before the game, general manager Joe Sakic said coach Patrick Roy will return for another season.

The Avalanche struggled at home all season, finishing with a 17-20-4 mark.

Trailing 3-0 in the second period, Holden and Iginla scored 32 seconds apart. It was career goal No. 611 for Iginla, moving him past Bobby Hull for 16th on the all-time. Next up is Sakic, who finished his career with 625 goals.

Anaheim secured the win in the third with Getzlaf and Silfverberg scoring on shots from the right side that got by Semyon Varlamov.

There was an ugly high-sticking incident late in the third when Anaheim defenseman Hampus Lindholm caught Matt Duchene in the face. Duchene dripped blood onto the ice, but only left for a brief moment.

The Ducks rested quite a few players who were banged up, including Shawn Horcoff, Mike Santorelli and Clayton Stoner. To make sure they had enough players, they recalled five players from San Diego of the American Hockey League. Two of them, Nick Ritchie and Shea Theodore, contributed assists.

Garbutt was walloped at center ice in the first period by Andreas Martinsen. The Ducks center was slow to get up and Martinsen drew a game misconduct penalty for the blow. The penalty proved costly, with the Ducks cashing in when Fowler sent a wrist shot past Varlamov at 14:44 of the first period.

Silfverberg added another goal with 54.8 seconds remaining in the period. It was his 19th goal of the season.

Frederik Andersen served as John Gibson's backup Saturday after missing the last five games with a concussion. He could be in goal Sunday.

Gibson finished with 29 saves.

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