Flyers boost wild card hope by beating Penguins
PITTSBURGH: Jakub Voracek and Dale Weise sparked Philadelphia’s four-goal third period as the Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 in the NHL on Sunday night.
Jordan Weal scored his fifth goal in the first period and Valtteri Filppula his ninth in the second, then the Flyers broke it open in the third. Weise got his fifth of the season and Voracek his 19th before Radko Gudas and Shayne Gostisbehere capped the scoring.
Steve Mason stopped 25 shots for the Flyers, who won for the fourth time in seven games.
Philadelphia is six points behind Boston for the second Eastern Conference wild card, with three teams ahead of them and seven games left. The Flyers had won three of their previous nine games, including a home shutout against Pittsburgh.
Matt Murray made 27 saves for the Penguins, who missed out on an opportunity to move a point behind the Washington Capitals for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division. Matt Cullen and Patric Hornqvist scored.
RED WINGS 3, WILD 2, OT: Andreas Athanasiou scored 1:52 into overtime and lifted the Detroit Red Wings over the reeling Minnesota Wild.
Jimmy Howard made the gamewinning goal possible by making one of his 24 saves.
Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist got the rebound and made a long pass to set up Athanasiou, who faked out Devan Dubnyk with a move before flipping the puck into the net.
The Wild have lost eight of nine and are 3-10-1 in March. They still clinched a playoff spot late Saturday night when the Los Angeles Kings lost to the New York Rangers. The Wild extended their postseason streak to five under first-year coach Bruce Boudreau.
STARS 2, DEVILS 1, OT: Tyler Seguin scored on a power play 20 seconds into overtime as the Dallas Stars rallied to beat the New Jersey Devils.
Ales Hemsky also scored a powerplay goal with 6:36 left in regulation as the Stars came back to avoid being eliminated from playoff contention.
Kari Lehtonen made 20 saves for Dallas, including a stop on a short-handed breakaway attempt by Blake Pietila about a minute before Hemsky tied the game.
JETS 2, CANUCKS 1: Michael Hutchinson made 28 saves and Adam Lowry scored a power-play goal in the third period to lift the Winnipeg Jets past the Vancouver Canucks.
Lowry scored the go-ahead goal with 8:13 to go, keeping the Jets mathematically alive in the playoff picture — although one loss or one win by St. Louis the rest of the season would knock Winnipeg out of contention.
DUCKS 6, RANGERS 3: Andrew Cogliano scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves as the Anaheim Ducks won their fourth straight game by beating Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers.
Patrick Eaves scored two goals and Ryan Getzlaf had four assists as Anaheim moved two points ahead of idle San Jose and Edmonton for first place in the Pacific Division with seven games remaining.