Flyers boost wild-card hopes
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 are 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 shut-out 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.
In Detroit, Andreas Athanasiou scored 1:52 into overtime and lifted the Detroit Red Wings over the reeling Minnesota Wild 3-2.
Jimmy Howard made the game-winning 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.
In Newark, Tyler Seguin scored on a power play 20 seconds into overtime as the Dallas Stars rallied to beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1.
Ales Hemsky also scored a powerplay goal with 6:36 left in regulation as the Stars came back to avoid being eliminated from play-off contention.