ScoresandStats.com Latest Sports Previews

When Tampa Bay hosts the New York Rangers in the regular-season finale on Wednesday, the Lightning know they won’t need to pack their bags postgame. Thanks to the Canadiens’ 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, the Lightning (50-25-6, 106 points) clinched second place in the Atlantic Division, and Montreal (48-24-10, 106 points) will finish third. The Canadiens will open a first-round playoff series in Tampa this weekend. While the Lightning, if they lose in regulation to the Rangers, would finish level on points with the Canadiens, Tampa Bay owns the regulation-wins tiebreaker (40-34). The Rangers (33-39-9, 75 points), who will finish a dreadful campaign last in the Eastern Conference, are 1-1-0 against the Lightning. The previous matchups have

The Florida Panthers’ two-year run as Stanley Cup champions officially is about to end. The Panthers (39-38-4, 82 points) will play host to the Detroit Red Wings (41-30-10, 92 points) in the season finale for both non-playoff teams on Wednesday night in Sunrise, Fla. Despite having most of their top players on the injured list, the Panthers are still going hard and enter the contest on a two-game win streak. Backup goalie Daniil Tarasov has been in the nets for this modest win streak and now has 12 victories this season, a career high. “We cannot give up,” said Tarasov, 27. “We need to finish strong at home. We cannot be soft in our building.” Tarasov, in his fifth year

California counterparts meet Wednesday in a do-or-die start to the Western Conference play-in, as the No. 9 seed Los Angeles Clippers welcome the 10th-seeded Golden State Warriors to Inglewood, Calif. Los Angeles finished 42-40 in the regular season and fell into the 9/10 matchup by virtue of dropping a pair of late-season contests to the Portland Trail Blazers, including a 116-97 decision last Friday. That loss at Portland effectively locked the Clippers into the No. 9 seed and they will need two play-in victories to qualify for the playoff field. Golden State finished the regular season at 37-45 and had been firmly established as the West’s No. 10 team. Drawing Los Angeles leaves Golden State preparing for Kawhi Leonard, the

The Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic took different paths to the same record this season. On Wednesday night, they’ll be occupied with the same high-stakes task when the 76ers host the Magic in an Eastern Conference play-in tournament game. Both teams finished 45-37 during the regular season, but Philadelphia finished in seventh place in the East and earned home-court advantage Wednesday by virtue of winning two of three games against Orlando. The winner of Wednesday’s game advances to the main bracket as the seventh seed and will play a best-of-seven series against the second-seeded Boston Celtics. The loser will play again Friday night, hosting the winner of Tuesday night’s game between the ninth-place Charlotte Hornets and the 10th-place Miami Heat