MONTREAL – Chris Higgins scored twice and Mark Streit had a goal and an assist as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 Saturday night to finish their schedule atop the Eastern Conference.

Montreal completed the regular season with a 47-25-10 record for 104 points, two more than second-place Pittsburgh, which plays its final game Sunday at Philadelphia.

The Canadiens will claim their first conference title in 19 years if the Penguins, who also have 47 wins, lose to the Flyers.

Regardless of whether they finish first or second overall in the East, Montreal will face Boston in the opening round of the playoffs as a result of the Bruins’ 3-0 loss to Buffalo.

The Canadiens will host the series opener Thursday at the Bell Centre.

Mark Bell scored late in the second for Toronto, which missed the playoffs for a third straight season. The Maple Leafs finished last in the Northeast Division and 12th overall in the East with a 36-35-11 mark and 83 points.

Ducks 4, Kings 3

LOS ANGELES – Teemu Selanne is going to the playoffs. Scott Thornton could be headed for retirement.

The 37-year-old stars left the ice with opposite emotions on Saturday after Selanne scored two goals, including the game winner to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

The playoff-bound Ducks have one game left in the regular season. The Kings, who began the day tied with Tampa Bay for the fewest points in the league, lost their finale and are headed to the NHL draft lottery.

Thornton, a 17-year NHL veteran who has played in Los Angeles the last two seasons, quietly confirmed what his teammates already knew, that after 941 career games, he will probably retire.

Blues 3, Blue Jackets 0

ST. LOUIS – Keith Tkachuk scored the 498th and 499th goals of his career, and Manny Legace earned his 27th career shutout as St. Louis beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0 in the Blues’ regular-season home finale Saturday.

Brad Boyes also scored his team-leading 42nd goal and Paul Kariya added two assists for the Blues, who won all four matchups with the Blue Jackets at home this season. Legace stopped 25 shots for his fifth shutout of the season.

The Blue Jackets, who dropped their fifth game in six decisions (1-4-1), were outscored 14-2 in their last three games in St. Louis.

Despite being outshot 13-7 in the opening period, the Blues grabbed a 2-0 lead on power-play goals by Boyes and Tkachuk.

The Blues, who came in with the worst power play in the league at 13.5 percent, were two-for-three in the opening period. Boyes got things started at 8:36 when he fired a shot from the left circle past Pascal Leclaire after taking a pass from rookie Erik Johnson.

Capitals 3, Panthers 1

WASHINGTON – Make room in the playoffs for MVP front-runner Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.

Tomas Fleischmann, Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin scored for the Capitals, who clinched the Southeast Division title with a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night. The win was also the Capitals’ seventh straight, the franchise’s longest in 15 years.

The Capitals finished last in the Southeast each of the last three season and were still there as late as Dec. 30, but their steady climb had already begun.

With nearly every game in March and April a must-win, they ended the regular season by winning 11 of 12 and 14 of 18.