The NHL regular season has come to a close, so it's time to take a look at the statistical leaders from this year's campaign.

Art Ross Trophy

Awarded to the player with the most points

Winner: Nikita Kucherov

Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy

Awarded to the player with the most goals

Winner: Auston Matthews

Assists leader

Winners: Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov

Defenseman points leader

Winner: Quinn Hughes

Average ice time leader

Winner: John Carlson

William M. Jennings Trophy

Awarded to the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals against

Winner: Connor Hellebuyck

Save percentage leader

Minimum of 25 games played, per NHL.com

Winner: Anthony Stolarz

Goalie wins leader

Winner: Alexandar Georgiev

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Auston Matthews seems to have taken his game to another level.

The Toronto Maple Leafs superstar came into this season as arguably the most reliable goal-scorer in the NHL, but his ability to find the back of the net has gone from incredible to otherworldly in recent months.

Matthews registered a hat trick less than halfway through Saturday's 9-2 drubbing of the Anaheim Ducks. He racked up only 14:52 of ice time because of the lopsided nature of the contest. He added a pair of assists, giving him his first career five-point game.

"I've gone through the phase where you're in awe of Auston, but this is like a new standard. ... "It's pretty remarkable," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said postgame.

Matthews has notched three goals in consecutive games for the second time this season. He's the first NHL player with back-to-back hat tricks on multiple occasions since Wayne Gretzky in 1983-84, according to Sportsnet Stats.

Keefe noted that other teams are well aware of the pace Matthews has been on, but perhaps the most impressive part of his game is that he keeps finding ways to light the lamp.

"As much as Auston has been scoring, you know teams are talking about him," Keefe said, adding, "And one of the greatest things about Auston is he continues to find ways to get available and get to spots."

Matthews also set a franchise record with his sixth total hat trick this season, which is the most for any player since Mario Lemieux had six in 1995-96. He has now registered an incredible 33 goals over his last 31 games.

Matthews was quite pleased to learn that his six hat tricks have placed him in the company of Lemieux.

"It's obviously hard to put into words to be in the same sentence as a guy like that," Matthews said. "Definitely pretty cool."

The three-goal barrage puts Matthews' season total at 48 goals through 53 games, and he's now on pace for just under 75 tallies. No one has reached that rarefied air since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne each scored 76 during the 1992-93 campaign.

Matthews will look to add to his total Monday afternoon when the Leafs travel to St. Louis for a matinee against the Blues.

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With an electrifying Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the books, the NHL unveiled the schedule for the first two games of each second-round series.

* if necessary.

Atlantic Division

Toronto Maple Leafs (A2) vs. Florida Panthers (WC2)

Metropolitan Division

Carolina Hurricanes (M1) vs. New Jersey Devils (M2)

Central Division

Dallas Stars (C2) vs. Seattle Kraken (WC1)

Pacific Division

Vegas Golden Knights (P1) vs. Edmonton Oilers (P2)

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For the first time in franchise history, the Seattle Kraken are heading to the playoffs.

The Kraken booked their ticket to the postseason with a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night, giving them 96 points on the season.

Jared McCann started things off with his 38th goal of the year and added two assists for the Kraken. Jordan Eberle also had a goal and a pair of assists, while rookie Matty Beniers chipped in a goal and assist of his own. Vince Dunn rounded out the scoring for Seattle with his 14th tally of the season. Philipp Grubauer stopped 27 shots to earn the win.

Making the playoffs caps a remarkable turnaround for the second-year franchise after Seattle recorded a 27-49-6 record last year during its inaugural season. That was good enough for 60 points and a last-place finish in the Pacific Division.

The Kraken become the seventh Western Conference team to clinch a postseason berth this season, leaving just one up for grabs. The Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames are currently tied for that last spot with 89 points, while the Predators sit one point back. The Jets and Predators each have one game in hand on Calgary.

By making the playoffs in their second season, the Kraken follow in the footsteps of the expansion franchise that preceded them, the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas of course managed to not only make the playoffs in its first season but went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Washington Capitals. The Golden Knights made the playoffs in each of their first four seasons before missing out on the postseason last year for the first time.

The Kraken have four games remaining in the regular season, concluding the year with a pair of consecutive games against Vegas prior to the playoffs.

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As the Nashville Predators battle for a playoff spot, it appears they'll have to do so without forward Matt Duchene for at least the next little while.

Following Sunday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Predators head coach John Hynes announced Duchene is considered week-to-week after suffering an upper-body injury during the 3-2 loss, according to John Glennon of NHL.com.

Duchene exited the game in the second period after taking teammate Dante Fabbro's shot off his hand while in front of the Leafs' net. He was immediately taken back to the dressing room and didn't return to the game.

Nashville is now five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 10 games left to play. The Predators have two games in hand on the Winnipeg Jets, who currently hold that last postseason berth.

Duchene has 22 goals and 56 points in 71 games for Nashville this season. He joins a loaded group of Predators dealing with injuries, with the likes of captain Roman Josi, forwards Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen, and defenseman Alexandre Carrier already on injured reserve.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins spent much of Wednesday's 5-4 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators killing off penalties. Pittsburgh was shorthanded nine times, giving up four power-play goals along the way that allowed Ottawa to claim victory.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was at a loss trying to describe his team's performance following the defeat.

"It's pretty tough to assess a game like that when half the game is special teams," Sullivan said after the game. "There was no flow to it, there was no five-on-five, it was ridiculous."

In addition to the nine power plays for Ottawa, the Senators were also called for five penalties, leaving just over half of the game played at five-on-five.

Sullivan's main gripe postgame appeared to be with the officiating on the night.

"Let's just say I question a fair amount of the calls," Sullivan added.

While he took issue with the calls against his team, Sullivan also recognized that giving up four power-play goals is hardly a recipe for success and gave credit to his penalty killers for trying to fight through the adversity.

"We gave up four goals against, it's not good enough," Sullivan said. "We battled hard but when you're spending a third of the game trying to kill penalties it puts an awful lot of burden on those guys."

The loss dropped Pittsburgh to 22-15-7 on the year as the Pens currently sit in fifth place in the Metropolitan division. They return to action Friday, once again against the Senators.

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The Philadelphia Flyers were dealt a blow Friday night, as goaltender Carter Hart was forced to leave the 6-5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes with an upper-body injury.

Samuel Ersson got the start in net for Philly, but he struggled and was pulled near the midway point of the second period after allowing five goals. Hart came on in relief, but his appearance was short.

Hart played just under 10 minutes in the second frame, stopping six of the seven shots he faced. The injury appeared to happen when teammate Rasmus Ristolainen knocked Seth Jarvis into Hart. He didn't return after the collision.

Hart entered the game with a 10-10-6 record and a .911 save percentage on the year, looking to bounce back after a couple of down seasons. Philadelphia is already shorthanded in goal, with regular backup Felix Sandstrom dealing with an illness.

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Boston Bruins star forward Patrice Bergeron has been named the 2020-21 winner of the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award, the league announced Wednesday.

The award is given annually to "the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team on and off the ice during the regular season, and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey." The winner is selected by Messier himself.

Bergeron succeeded Zdeno Chara as the 20th captain in Bruins history before the campaign after the latter signed with the Washington Capitals in the offseason. Bergeron ranked second on the team in both goals (23) and points (48) in 54 games this year.

"It's a huge honor," Bergeron said of his win, according to Sportsnet. "Obviously, there's more than just Xs and Os and playing the game of hockey; it's about the community and what impact you can bring to people - obviously, to your team and beyond that - to grow the game of hockey."

The 35-year-old is the 15th winner of the award after Calgary Flames captain Mark Giordano was named last year's recipient. Bergeron has spent his entire 17-year career with Boston and is a four-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, earning top defensive forward honors in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017.

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The Montreal Canadiens appear to be a team of destiny.

Montreal is heading to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after completing a sweep of the Winnipeg Jets with a 3-2 overtime win in Game 4 of their second-round series.

The Habs, who were the final team to qualify for the postseason, have now won seven straight playoff games. They never trailed in the series and haven't been behind since Game 4 of the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a span of 437 minutes and 53 seconds. That's the second-longest streak without trailing in a single postseason in NHL history.

Tyler Toffoli scored the winner 1:39 into OT with a beautiful one-timer set up by rookie Cole Caufield. The goal propels the Canadiens into the Stanley Cup semifinals for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Erik Gustafsson and Artturi Lehkonen scored the regulation goals for Montreal, while Logan Stanley countered with both of Winnipeg's markers during the second period.

The game likely wouldn't have even gone into overtime without the play of Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner helped keep his team alive as long as possible with 39 saves. Carey Price stopped 14 of the 16 shots fired in his direction.

This matchup marked the sixth meeting since 2001 between a team coming off of a seven-game series and one that had just completed a four-game sweep. In an interesting wrinkle, the team that had the more grueling previous series has now won all six times.

Montreal awaits the winner of the series between the Colorado Avalanche and Las Vegas Golden Knights, with a berth in the Stanley Cup Final on the line.

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Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy didn't mince words following his team's 5-4 loss in Game 5 to the New York Islanders.

Cassidy, unhappy with what he believed were one-sided calls on Monday, claimed the Islanders try to paint a portrait of themselves as "Saints" and that the referees are buying into it.

"I think they sell a narrative over there that it's more like the New York Saints, not the New York Islanders. They play hard, they play the right way, but I feel we're the same way. And the exact calls that are getting called on us do not get called on them and I don't know why," he said after the loss in which the Islanders scored a trio of power-play goals.

Boston was penalized four times on Monday, while New York received two minor penalties. The bench boss added he's not ready to implement shadier tactics to get the officials' attention.

Maybe we need to sell them more, flop, but that's not us. You'd just hope they see them. I mean the same calls go against us. It's not like I'm sitting there going 'well every call against us sucks,' it's not true. They need to be penalized on those plays. They've done a great job selling that narrative that they're clean ... they commit as many infractions as we do, trust me. It's just a matter of calling them. That's the part that I guess gets frustrating but you play through it.

Cassidy also appeared to reference comments from Islanders head coach Barry Trotz, who complained about the officiating following Game 4, and felt like those words had an impact on Monday's referees.

"Call the game what you see, quit listening to these outside influences and get it done right. I don't think they were great tonight, I'm not going to lie to you, but they have been and they are good officials. I don't know, tonight I just thought they were off."

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