The St. Louis Blues are President's Trophy winners for the first time.
Now they turn their attention to another laurel the team has never claimed: the Stanley Cup.Scott Pellerin had a goal and two assists in the third period as the Blues overcame Marc Savard's four-goal performance to beat the Calgary Flames 6-5 Wednesday night and clinch the NHL's best record.
"We've got bigger things to go after," captain Chris Pronger said after his goal and three assists helped St. Louis improve to 51-18-11 for 113 points.
The Blues, who lost to eventual champion Dallas in the Western Conference semifinals last year, haven't reached the Stanley Cup finals since 1970, when they were swept by Boston.
Two teams clinched playoff spots with wins Wednesday: Pittsburgh and San Jose. The Penguins earned a berth in the Eastern Conference by beating Toronto 4-2, while the Sharks qualified in the West with a 5-2 victory over Dallas.
Donald Brashear, who missed 20 games after Boston defenseman Marty McSorley's stick attack, returned to the Vancouver lineup in the Canucks' 1-1 tie against Los Angeles.
In other NHL action, Florida routed Boston 6-3, Montreal blanked the New York Rangers 3-0, Chicago beat Anaheim 5-2, Colorado edged Edmonton 3-2, and Phoenix got past Nashville 3-2.
Blues coach Joel Quenneville said the President's Trophy symbolizes the team's efforts.
"I've never done it before, so it felt pretty good," Quenneville said. "It says something about what we accomplished as a team. We improved our depth and we improved our consistent play. We found a way to win many games, and one example of that was tonight."
Pellerin capped a wild final period by scoring with 5:10 remaining when Calgary goalie Fred Brathwaite's clearing attempt ricocheted in off Pellerin's skates. The play was reviewed.
"I didn't give a motion to kick it in," Pellerin said. "I just kind of stopped. But I knew it went in off my foot. I knew it could have gone either way."
Savard, who had never scored more than twice in a game, beat goalie Roman Turek with a one-timer at 12:56 of the third period to tie it 5-5.
The loss officially ended the Flames' postseason hopes.
"It's a tough situation for sure," Savard said. "We worked hard all night and to lose on a goal like that. ... They're the first-place champs and now we can't make the playoffs."
The victory was the Turek's 42nd, tying him with New Jersey's Martin Brodeur for the league lead.
PENGUINS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 2: Jaromir Jagr tallied two goals and an assist, and Ron Tugnutt made 31 saves for Pittsburgh in Toronto.
Rob Brown and Robert Lang also scored for the Penguins, who are seventh in the Eastern Conference with 86 points, five ahead of both Montreal and Buffalo, and six ahead of Carolina.
The Leafs failed for the second straight game to clinch their first division title since 1962-63.
SHARKS 5, STARS 2: Vincent Damphousse scored twice and had an assist as host San Jose clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season.
San Jose has 84 points, four more than ninth-place Vancouver with two games left for each team. But the Sharks have the tiebreaker edge by virtue of more wins, 34 to 29.
CANUCKS 1, KINGS 1: Brashear was greeted with loud cheers by the home fans when he stepped onto the ice for his first shift 1:31 into the game. The cheers got louder when he made his first hit just five seconds later
The single point gave Vancouver 81 and left it three behind eighth-place Edmonton for the final playoff spot in the West.
PANTHERS 6, BRUINS 3: Ray Whitney and Ray Sheppard each scored twice as Florida set a franchise record for goals in a period with six in the second at home.
Florida can finish first in the Southeast Division if it wins its final two games and Washington loses its last two.
CANADIENS 3, RANGERS 0: Jeff Hackett made 31 saves for his 22nd career shutout as Montreal won on the road to move into an eighth-place tie in the Eastern Conference. Brian Savage, Sergei Zholtok and Martin Rucinsky scored.
Montreal, which missed the playoffs last season, has not been out of the postseason in consecutive years since failing in three straight from 1920-22.
BLACKHAWKS 5, MIGHTY DUCKS 2: Jean-Yves Leroux scored from just inside the blue line with 9:42 remaining to snap a 2-2 tie for host Chicago.
COYOTES 3, PREDATORS 2: Mikael Renberg scored his 150th career goal as Phoenix, at home, won for the fourth time in five games.
AVALANCHE 3, OILERS 2: Milan Hejduk, Dave Andreychuk and Alex Tanguay scored to help Colorado stretch its winning streak to six games.