NHL-Highlights of Thursday's NHL games

March 20 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League games. - - - Flyers 4, Stars 2 Right winger Wayne Simmonds scored two goals, goaltender Steve Mason made 33 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 for their fourth straight win. Defenseman Mark Streit and left winger Michael Raffl also scored goals for Philadelphia (37-25-7). The Flyers are 7-1-1 in March and have a three-point lead over the New York Rangers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Left winger Jamie Benn scored two goals for Dallas, which lost its fourth straight game. The Stars (32-26-11) entered two points behind Phoenix for the last playoff spot in the West. - - - Red Wings 5, Penguins 4 (overtime) Right winger Daniel Alfredsson's goal with .04 seconds left in overtime gave the Detroit Red Wings a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was Alfredsson's second goal and he added an assist while winger Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist and left wingers Tomas Tatar and Todd Bertuzzi scored for Detroit (32-24-13). Defenseman Danny DeKeyser had two assists and goaltender Jimmy Howard made 39 saves in the win. Center Evgeni Malkin scored twice and right wingers Lee Stempniak and Craig Adams scored for Pittsburgh (45-19-5). - - - Devils 4, Wild 3 (overtime) Defenseman Andy Greene's power-play goal two minutes into overtime led the New Jersey Devils to a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild. Right wingers Michael Ryder and Jaromir Jagr and defenseman Mark Fayne scored for New Jersey, which improved to 30-27-13, snapping a three-game winless streak. Minnesota fell to 36-23-11 as left winger Zach Parise, center Mikael Grandlund and defenseman Marco Scandella scored third-period goals for the Wild to help force overtime. - - - Lightning 5, Senators 4 The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-4 for their fifth straight win, sending the Senators to a fifth consecutive loss. Winger Teddy Purcell led the attack for Tampa with two goals, while center Valtteri Filppula, right wing Ryan Callahan and defenseman Eric Brewer had the others. Scoring for the Senators were wingers Clarke MacArthur, Ales Hemsky and Milan Michalek, as well as defenseman Erik Karlsson. - - - Blue Jackets 3, Canadiens 2 Columbus Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen scored the game-winning goal late in the third period to give the Blue Jackets a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. The score was tied 2-2 when Johansen intercepted defenseman Jarred Tinordi's pass at the Montreal blue line and drove in to beat goaltender Carey Price through the five-hole at the 16:59 mark. Price made 37 saves for Montreal (38-26-7), which saw its three-game winning streak snapped. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots for the Blue Jackets (36-27-6), who beat the Canadiens for the first time in three meetings this season. - - - Sharks 3, Ducks 2 The Joe Thornton-Brent Burns connection has put the Sharks in first place. Right wing Burns scored his 20th goal of the season by redirecting a Thornton feed from the boards past Anaheim goalie Frederik Anderson at 16:01 to break a tie and send the Sharks to a 3-2 win over the Ducks. San Jose trailed Anaheim by 13 points on January 16, but has gone 17-6-1 while the Ducks have slipped to 9-10-2. The Sharks now lead the Ducks by two points in the Pacific Division and have played one more game. Thornton's 11th goal of the season, a rebound of a Burns drive, capped a 2-on-1 San Jose break at 8:11 to tie the game 2-2. - - - Sabres 3, Oilers 1 The Buffalo Sabres averted a franchise-record eight-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers. The upset win came courtesy of scoring twice in the third period to break open a 1-1 tie. Left winger Taylor Hall's 24th goal of the season sent Edmonton into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead but instead of putting the slumping Sabres away in the second period, the Oilers gave up their lead. Cory Conacher's scored either side of the main intermission before Stafford provided an insurance goal. - - - Coyotes 2, Panthers 1 Right winger Radim Vrbata and center Antoine Vermette scored first-period goals and goaltender Mike Smith made 22 saves as the Phoenix Coyotes beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 to post their first three-game winning streak since early November. The win moved Phoenix four points ahead of Dallas in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, although the Stars still have a game in hand. Phoenix took charge of the game quickly when Vrbata knocked home a rebound of defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson's shot on the power play just 2:56 into the game. - - - Kings 2, Capitals 1 (shootout) Winger Marian Gaborik scored the game winning shootout goal and goaltender Jonathan Quick made 21 saves as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Washington Capitals 2-1. Los Angeles (39-25-8) snapped a three-game losing streak and maintained its five point lead over the Phoenix Coyotes for third place in the Pacific Division. Kings coach Darryl Sutter earned his 500th regular season victory with the win. The Capitals (33-27-11) had a three-game winning streak snapped, but climbed to within one point of the final playoff spot with the overtime loss. (Editing by John O'Brien)