In his 200th appearance in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators, German national ice hockey player Tim Stützle scored an important win in the battle for the playoffs. The Senators triumphed 7-2 (2-0, 1-1, 4-1) over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

After two games without scoring points, Stützle hung up in the final third to give his team a 6-2 lead. After Tampa Bay narrowed to 2-3 early in the final period, Ottawa scored four goals in nine minutes. After their 35th win of the season, the Senators have 75 points, five fewer than the Pittsburgh Penguins, who currently hold the last of the two wildcard spots in the Eastern Conference.

Things are looking worse for the Detroit Red Wings around German defender Moritz Seider: After a 3:4 (2:1, 0:3, 1:0) home defeat against the St. Louis Blues, the Red Wings are four points behind two places behind the senators. The guests turned the game around with three goals in the second period. The German goalkeeper Thomas Greiss was not used by the Blues.

Nico Sturm suffered a 2:7 (1:3, 0:1, 1:3) away defeat against the Vancouver Canucks with the San Jose Sharks, while Lukas Reichel and the Chicago Blackhawks also lost 1:6 to the Washington Capitals (0:2, 0:2, 1:2) defeated. Both Chicago and San Jose are at the bottom of the Western Conference and have no chance of making the playoffs.