Flyers boost wild card hope by beating Penguins
PITTSBURGH (AP) — 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
DETROIT (AP) — Andreas Athanasiou scored 1:52 into overtime and lifted the Detroit Red Wings over the reeling Minnesota Wild.
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.
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.
Mike Green and Tomas Tatar also scored for Detroit.
Dubnyk finished with 16 saves and Eric Staal and Nate Prosser scored for Minnesota.
STARS 2, DEVILS 1, OT
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — 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 power-play 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.
Blake Coleman, who was born in Plano, Texas, scored his first NHL goal for New Jersey. Keith Kinkaid made 30 saves.
JETS 2, CANUCKS 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — 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.
Mathieu Perreault also scored for Winnipeg.
Alexander Edler had the only goal for Vancouver, while Ryan Miller made 30 saves.
DUCKS 6, RANGERS 3
ANAHEIM, California (AP) — 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.
Josh Manson had a short-handed goal and Ryan Kesler scored on the power play for the Ducks, who improved to 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
Lundqvist made 28 saves in his first start since suffering a hip injury on March 7, and Brady Skjei, Derek Stepan and Rick Nash each scored for the Rangers. New York could have clinched a playoff spot with a win.
Cogliano alertly raced in to score on a rebound after a faceoff between Kesler and Stepan sent the puck off Lundqvist, and Eaves doubled the Ducks' lead 2:04 later.
Nick Ritchie added an empty-net goal with 1:38 remaining.
