Ice Hockey - NHL

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Marco Rossi can strengthen Austria's national ice hockey team at the World Championship starting May 10 in Prague! The 22-year-old from Vorarlberg, Austria, and his club Minnesota Wild finally dropped out of the playoff race in the National Hockey League (NHL) on Tuesday, meaning his season in North America will end on April 18. 

Minnesota lost 2:5 to the Colorado Avalanche in Denver and thus squandered its last - and in any case only theoretical - chance of advancing. The visitors overcame an early 2-0 deficit with two power-play goals from Kirill Kaprisov (11th) and Matt Boldy (20th), but fell 5-2 behind in the middle period. Nathan MacKinnon scored three goals and became the fourth player this season to surpass the 50-goal mark.

66th goal of the season for Auston Matthews
Meanwhile, two other goalscorers reached new milestones on Tuesday. Auston Matthews scored his 66th goal of the season in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. The 26-year-old American is the first player since Mario Lemieux 28 years ago (69 goals in 1995/96) to score more than 65 goals in a season.

He also surpassed Alexander Ovechkin (65 in the 2007/08 season), who set an NHL record himself on Tuesday. The 38-year-old Russian scored in the Washington Capitals' 2-1 away win over the Detroit Red Wings, reaching at least 30 goals for the 18th time in a season and surpassing Mike Gartner, who had done so 17 times. Ovechkin has a total of 852 NHL goals, 42 shy of Wayne Gretzky's all-time record (894).

The Nashville Predators were able to secure a place in the playoffs despite losing to the Winnipeg Jets. One point was enough for them to secure their place, which they achieved with a 3:4 win after overtime.