NEW YORK — The New York Rangers have been on a mission since falling to the New Jersey Devils in the opening round of the playoffs last spring. They responded by finishing with the NHL’s best regular-season record.
Artemi Panarin had a goal and an assist, Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and the New York Rangers beat the Ottawa Senators4-0 on Monday night to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy.
Jack Roslovic, Adam Fox and Alexis Lafreniere also scored and Chris Kreider had two assists as the Rangers won their league-best 55th game and finished with 114 points — both franchise records — and will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
New York won for the fifth time in seven games and went 26-7-1 in its past 34 games. It previously won the Presidents’ Trophy in 1991-92, 1993-94 — when it won the Stanley Cup the only time since 1940 — and 2014-15.
“Obviously it’s an accomplishment,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “Now it’s a quick turn of the page and we get ready for the real stuff.”
Four teams — Washington, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia — are still in contention to finish in the second wild card and meet the Rangers in the opening round of the postseason. The Rangers had 107 points last year but were eliminated in seven games in the first round by the second-place Devils.
“They’ve been there all year. The team played well. They competed hard,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We’re a group that feels like when they put their equipment on, they can win … Now you’re heading into why you did all that work, the first round of the playoffs.”
Roslovic, acquired from Columbus on March 8, scored his third goal with the Rangers and ninth overall this season at 5:55 of the first, beating Ottawa goalie Joonas Korpisalo by finishing off a 2-on-1 passing play with Kreider.
“It feels good. I’m glad to contribute,” Roslovic said. “It’s a special time to be able to come in and be a helping hand.”
Fox put the Rangers ahead 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 8:58 of the second. Fox finessed a pass from Kreider past Korpisalo for his 17th goal of the season with Kaapo Kakko — playing his 300th NHL game — in the penalty box for slashing. Fox has the most goals by a Rangers defenseman since Brian Leetch scored 21 in 2000-01.
“Knowing what was on the line tonight was a good way to end our season,” Fox said. “It’s been a full team effort with everyone chipping in. We did a good job a bearing down tonight and the crowd was into it.”
Panarin made it 3-0 with his 49th goal at 4:34 of the third. Panarin finished with 120 points — second most in Rangers history to Jaromir Jagr’s 123 in 2005-06 — and with points in a franchise-record 67 of his 82 games this season.
With the Garden crowd chanting “MVP, MVP” trying to exhort their star, Panarin had a chance to score his 50th goal with a late Rangers power play, but Korpisalo denied him twice. The 32-year-old Russian forward had seven shots on goal. He smiled when asked to assess his 120-point season and his 18 shot attempts in Monday’s game.
“Multiple things, partners, coaching staff — the whole team,” Panarin cited as reasons for his best statistical year. “Pretty fun season. It’s good to have that experience but there’s no time to relax.”
Lafreniere increased the lead to 4-0 with seven minutes remaining in the third with his 28th, concluding a pretty setup from Panarin and defenseman Erik Gustafsson.
Kreider finished with 75 points, including 39 goals, for the second-highest points total of his career.
Shesterkin won seven of his past nine starts to finish the regular season at 36-17-2. In 22 games since Feb. 12, the 28-year-old Russian netminder was 16-5-1 with four shutouts.
The Rangers finished 30-11-0 at home, winning 15 of their past 19 at Madison Square Garden. The 30 home wins tied the 1970-71 squad for most in franchise history.
The Senators will miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season. The last time Ottawa reached the postseason was in 2017 when it defeated the Rangers in six games in a second-round series.
“We gave them the first two goals. Take those two goals aside and it’s a pretty good game,” Senators interim coach Jacques Martin said. “They have a good team. We battled hard. When you play these good teams, you can’t afford to give them freebies.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Blues forward Jordan Kyrou was a healthy scratch for Thursday night’s game at Buffalo as St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery tries to spark improvement from his struggling team.
The Blues are 1-6-2 in their past nine games and entered Thursday in 15th place in the Western Conference with a 4-9-2 record. St. Louis followed a 3-2 win at home against Edmonton with a 6-1 road loss at Washington on Wednesday night.
Montgomery held a mandatory morning skate before playing in the second game of a back-to-back Thursday in Buffalo.
“If you have competitive fire in your belly, struggles like this provide opportunities to grow stronger together when you face these again,” Montgomery said after the practice.
Kyrou is tied for second on the Blues with eight points in 14 games and has led the team in goals in each of the past three seasons. Kyrou has not recorded a point in his past five games. This is the first time in five seasons that the 27-year-old winger has been a healthy scratch. He has 154 goals and 340 points in 430 NHL games.
Alexandre Texier replaced Kyrou at right wing on the Blues’ top line.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Former LSU coach Brian Kelly shared a statement on social media to fans Thursday, a little more than a week after he was fired in the fourth season of his 10-year, $100 million contract.
“The journey began with great expectations with my own vision of how to get there,” Kelly said. “Sometimes the journey does not end the way we hope.
“But when I think of our time together, I will remember and appreciate what we did accomplish. … The roar of Death Valley when we beat Alabama. The losses will always hurt, but I will remember all the wins.”
Kelly was 34-14 with the Tigers over three-plus seasons, helping them reach the 2022 Southeastern Conference title game. They didn’t qualify for the College Football Playoff in his first three seasons and were virtually eliminated from contention with his last loss.
LSU has won three national titles this century — in 2003, 2007 and 2019. The most recent came under Kelly’s predecessor, Ed Orgeron.
Kelly called it a privilege to coach exceptional student-athletes, among them 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels and 39 SEC Academic Honor Roll players in 2024.
Associate head coach Frank Wilson is the team’s interim coach for the rest of the season.
The Tigers (5-3, 2-3 SEC) host No. 7 Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC) on Saturday in their first game since Kelly was fired.
“As everyone heads on their way to see the Tigers play, I wish Coach Wilson, the coaches and our players the best this weekend,” Kelly said.
LSU ousted Kelly and athletic director Scott Woodward amid criticism from Gov. Jeff Landry.
The day of Kelly’s firing, Landry said he hosted a meeting in the governor’s mansion on the evening of Oct. 26 “to discuss the legalities of the contract.” Landry had said he was concerned his state would be on the hook to pay for Kelly’s buyout, which is about $54 million.
Days after Kelly’s firing, Landry told reporters that Woodward would not select the next coach. The next day, LSU cut ties with Woodward.
The 64-year-old Kelly has gone 200-76 in Division I since being hired by Central Michigan in 2004. He was 113-40 at Notre Dame and had 34-6 mark at Cincinnati. Kelly was 118-35-2 at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, winning two Division II national titles during a run of three straight trips to the championship game.
Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell will return to lead the Badgers in 2026, athletic director Chris McIntosh announced on Thursday.
With the Badgers 2-6 overall and winless in Big Ten play, McIntosh is informing the Wisconsin team on Thursday that Fickell will return as head coach next year. The return will come with changes, which include increased investment in the roster and program, along with an ongoing analysis of every facet of the program.
“Chancellor [Jennifer] Mnookin and I are aligned on significantly elevating investment in our program to compete at highest level,” McIntosh told ESPN. “We are willing to make an investment in infrastructure and staff. As important is our ability to retain and recruit players in a revenue share and NIL era.”
In three seasons at Wisconsin, Fickell has gone 15-19. Along with supporting Fickell, McIntosh pledges to support the program more financially to return the Badgers to contention in the Big Ten.
“If Wisconsin is going to be as competitive as we expect, the support has to be as competitive,” McIntosh said. “There’s no getting around it. Our people, our fans are passionate about Wisconsin football. I’d have it no other way. A successful football program is important to university, the state and our lettermen.”
Fickell’s deal runs through the 2031 season. If he were to have been fired this year, he’d have been owed more than $25 million. (The one-year extension in the offseason did not impact the size of Fickell’s buyout.)
“This season has caused us all to have to look from within,” McIntosh said. “Luke has had to do that. I’ve had to do that. He has a willingness to be better. So do I, and so does Wisconsin from an institutional perspective.”
There’s optimism at Wisconsin that with college football settling into the revenue share and NIL era, the school will be better positioned because of the school’s traditional success in attracting corporate partnerships. Those can translate to NIL deals, in addition to the revenue share available to all schools.
“Our intention is to be, in terms of our investment, on par with those that we intend to compete with,” McIntosh said. “Our expectations are to compete at the highest level in the Big Ten and beyond.”
Wisconsin has lost six straight games. The Badgers host No. 23 Washington on Saturday afternoon and finish the year at No. 2 Indiana, home against Illinois and at Minnesota. The 37-0 loss to Iowa at home earlier in the year marked the program’s first home shutout since 1980.
Fickell’s tenure — and this season in particular — has been hallmarked by major injuries at quarterback. This season’s starting quarterback, Billy Edwards, got injured early in the season opener and hasn’t contributed significantly since.
Overall, the quarterback health can be summed up by Fickell’s team having the intended first-string quarterback play the entire game in just 11 of 34 games. The Badgers have endured consistent injury issues this year, including being down eight projected starters at Oregon.
That has left Wisconsin playing backup Danny O’Neil and third-stringer Hunter Simmons, and the Badgers have the No. 17 passing offense in the 18-team Big Ten (only Iowa is worse.) That lineup has gone up against a schedule with four teams ranked in the top 10 and seven of the top 25 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.
McIntosh said the same traits that made Fickell a celebrated hire remain.
“He has the vision and fire to do it,” McIntosh said. “The same things that made Luke Fickell a unanimously great hire in 2022 remain. He’s a winner, program builder and developer of talent, and he understands the Big Ten.”
Fickell won an average of 10.6 games per season in his final five years at Cincinnati. That included leading the Bearcats to the four-team College Football Playoff in 2021, the first team from outside a power conference to reach the College Football Playoff.
Fickell also brought extensive Big Ten experience, as he had spent 15 years coaching at Ohio State. That included a stint as interim coach in 2011 and his work as co-defensive coordinator on Ohio State’s 2014 national title team.
He’ll get a chance to reset the trajectory at Wisconsin in 2026.
“We all acknowledge this is short of expectations,” McIntosh said. “We have identified the ways in which we need to be successful, and we have a plan to be successful. We are executing that plan.”
