The Ottawa Senators will compete for the Stanley Cup for an 11th consecutive season, thanks in part to former coach Jacques Martin and the Florida Panthers.
Prior to the Senators' 2-1 loss to visiting Boston on Friday night, Florida skated to a 4-3 victory over the Hurricanes in Carolina to assure Ottawa of a playoff spot.
"Months ago, we said if we could get to 93, 94 points, we'd be in. I just told the players, getting 94 points is not backing in," Ottawa general manager and coach Bryan Murray said before giving kudos to Martin, who led the Senators to their first playoff appearance in 1997 and they haven't missed out since.
"In spite of all the stuff that's been said and the way we've played lately, we got 94 points and we deserve to be in. Jacques Martin did a heck of a job for us tonight."
The Senators, however, are not giving their fans much confidence they can duplicate last year's feat and return to the Cup finals.
After winning 15 of its first 17 games and spending 143 days atop the NHL's Eastern Conference, Ottawa has struggled mightily in the second half and slipped to seventh place following Friday's setback.
Minus injured forwards Daniel Alfredsson and Mike Fisher, the Senators mounted little offence against the Bruins, who improved their record to 41-28-12.
They mustered just 18 shots against goaltender Tim Thomas, who sported a 0.99 goals-against average in his first five meetings against Ottawa this season. Friday's triumph was his fourth of the campaign versus Ottawa (43-31-8).
"It's fantastic. It's huge," said Thomas, who's never made the playoffs at the NHL level. "All of our games have been so important lately and this one was the most. It's great for the team [to make the playoffs] and it feels pretty good for myself."
The Bruins also clinched a post-season berth for the first time since 2004 with their first win in three games, as did the Philadelphia Flyers with a 3-0 defeat of the New Jersey Devils.
"When we started, our No. 1 goal was to make the playoffs and to accomplish that is a credit to those guys in the dressing room," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "We faced a lot of adversity this year and to accomplish that is great, but we've got to finish the last game with a sense of purpose."
Former Senators defenceman Zdeno Chara made his presence felt before a sold-out crowd of 20,232 at Scotiabank Place with his career-best 17th goal of the season in the second period to open the scoring.
The six-foot-nine, 250-pound blue-liner also stood out in his own zone, shutting down the dynamic duo of Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza, who finished with a combined two shots on goal.
Kessel scores winner in 3rdHeatley had a chance to make it 2-2 with 30 seconds left in regulation but was knocked off the puck at the side of the Bruins net.
Phil Kessel beat Ottawa netminder Martin Gerber, who was starting his 17th straight game, for the winner at 4:21 of the third period to help move Boston past its Northeast Division rivals into sixth place in the East.
Vladimir Sobotka picked up two assists for the Bruins, who wrap up the regular season at home against Buffalo on Saturday night.
Antoine Vermette, who recorded his first NHL hat trick in Thursday's 8-2 drubbing of Toronto on Thursday, stopped Thomas's shutout streak at 180 minutes, 10 seconds midway through the final frame.
Earlier Friday, the Senators announced they'd be without Alfredsson and Fisher for the foreseeable future after they were injured against Toronto.
Alfredsson suffered upper-body and knee injuries when he was hit by Toronto's Mark Bell. Fisher went knee-on-knee with Bell and both he and Alfredsson are expected to be out for weeks, missing the start of Ottawa's playoffs.
Left-winger Nick Foligno was recalled before Friday's tilt from Binghamton of the American Hockey League.
Meanwhile, Boston received some encouraging news Friday morning when centre Patrice Bergeron — sidelined most of the season with post-concussion syndrome — went for a skate.
He could return in the first round of the playoffs along with leading scorer Marc Savard, who has fractured discs in his back.
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