NHL Results - Wed, Mar 25, 2015

Chicago @ Philadelphia 1-4 - One of the best things about being in a 'Real' Hockey town like Chicago is you literally can't go anywhere without being drawn to a hawks game. Even while queuing for a table in a restaurant, they have the common sense to place TV screens to watch the game while you wait. The victory extended the Flyers' regular-season home winning streak against the Blackhawks to 11 games. The Blackhawks' previous regular-season win in Philadelphia was Nov. 9, 1996; they did win Game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final in Philadelphia. The Blackhawks played most of the third period without forward Joakim Nordstrom because of an undisclosed injury. Coach Joel Quenneville said more would be known about his injury. The loss leaves the Blackhawks third in the Central Division, four points behind the second-place Nashville Predators and five behind the first-place St. Louis Blues. They're also three points ahead of the fourth-place Minnesota Wild. Philadelphia scored the first goal on a strong forecheck led by the line of Simmonds, Matt Read and Sean Couturier that ended when Simmonds took a cross-ice pass from Read and put a shot past Crawford 7:20 into the game. It was his 100th goal with the Flyers. White made it 2-0 at 7:09 of the second period when he got into the slot and tipped a Carlo Colaiacovo shot past Crawford. It was his fifth goal in 27 games this season; he had five goals in his first 141 games. Giroux made it 3-0 when he drove to the net to tip a centering pass by Jakub Voracek past Crawford. Quenneville tried a few different things, including replacing forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell with Daniel Carcillo and Andrew Desjardins. He placed Kris Versteeg on the top line with Toews and Brandon Saad after starting the game with Andrew Shaw in that spot. The Blackhawks had another power play after Shaw's goal, but their best chance came when Toews hit the post with a shot from the right side. Philadelphia closed the scoring with Raffl's 19th goal of the season, and his first NHL power-play goal, with 4:05 remaining in the third period. The Blackhawks almost certainly will make the playoffs for a seventh straight season and are trying to climb as high as they can in the division. Their deficit behind the Central leaders isn't huge, but with nine games left they know there isn't a lot of time left to make up ground.

Colorado @ Edmonton 3-4 - The Colorado Avalanche's hopes of qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs took a hit when they were unable to finish off a comeback against the Edmonton Oilers. The Avalanche battled back from a three-goal deficit after 20 minutes to tie the game, but gave up a power-play goal midway through the third period and wound up with a 4-3 loss. It was Colorado's third consecutive defeat. Ryan O'Reilly's goal 4:54 into the third period tied the game for Colorado, but center Derek Roy scored a power-play goal less than six minutes later to put the Oilers back on top. Roy was first to a loose puck that leaked behind Avalanche goaltender Reto Berra and nudged it into the net at 10:42 to restore Edmonton's lead. The goal came on the Oilers' lone power play of the game. Marincin scored his first NHL goal at 4:33 of the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. The defenseman took a pass from Andrew Miller in the slot and snapped a shot over Varlamov's shoulder. The assist gave Miller his first NHL point. Eberle made it 2-0 at 5:53, getting to a rebound behind Varlamov, diving out and putting the puck into an open net. Edmonton went up 3-0 on Hall's first goal since Jan. 9. Hall was playing his third game since returning from a leg injury. Hall found space along the wing and snapped a shot through Varlamov at 9:36, ending the goaltender's night. Iginla scored on a power-play one-timer at 5:22 of the second period to cut the lead to 3-1. Tanguay cut the lead to 3-2 at 10:31, getting to a rebound at the side of the net and banging it past Scrivens. O'Reilly tied the game following a turnover by Justin Schultz deep in the Edmonton zone. Schultz had his backhand pass intercepted by Tanguay, who cut to the net and slid the puck back across to O'Reilly for the easy tap-in. John Mitchell took a slashing penalty midway through the third period that gave Edmonton's its only power play of the game.


Dallas @ Calgary 4-3 SO - Tyler Seguin scored the shootout winner and Ales Hemsky had two goals to help the Dallas Stars to a 4-3 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome. Jamie Benn scored for the Stars (36-28-10), who have won four straight games, seven of eight and nine of the past 11. The victory pulled Dallas within six points of the idle Winnipeg Jets, who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, with eight games remaining. Kari Lehtonen made 31 saves for the Stars and denied all three shots in the shootout. He has not lost on the road since Jan. 27 at the Montreal Canadiens (9-0-0). The Flames (40-27-7) remained in third place in the Pacific Division and moved one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings, who have a game in hand. In the first round of the shootout, Seguin skated in on Karri Ramo and put a shot over his glove. Lehtonen denied Joe Colborne, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan to secure the win. Seguin's shootout winner came after Engelland forced overtime, scoring his second of the game by sending a knuckler from the point that weaved through traffic and over Lehtonen's shoulder to tie the game 3-3 at 11:19. The Stars came out strong in the first period. Denied on his first attempt from in close, Benn kicked his own rebound up to his stick and tried to tuck a shot by the pad of Ramo, but the puck popped up and rested on Ramo's leg up against the goal line on Dallas' first scoring chance 6:30 into the game. With Markus Granlund serving a double-minor for high sticking, the Stars had five shots on Ramo, including a sequence that featured a blocker save off Benn followed by a kick save against Seguin, as well as a slap shot from Alex Goligoski that was also denied by Ramo's pad midway through the period. Mikael Backlund put a shot off the crossbar on a setup by Lance Bouma with 2:16 remaining to keep the game scoreless. After Hemsky put the Stars up 1-0 47 seconds into the second, Benn extended the lead 10 minutes later. On the power play with Colborne in the penalty box for holding, Jason Spezza toe-dragged the puck around a sliding Kris Russell before feeding Benn for a tap-in for his 27th goal of the season at 10:47 to give Dallas a 2-0 lead. But Gaudreau converted on a tic-tac-toe play set up by Jiri Hudler and Monahan at 12:44 and Engelland, with a seeing-eye shot through a screen, scored his first goal since March 7, 2014, to tie the game at 13:49. Skating 4-on-4, Shawn Horcoff stripped Bouma at the Stars blue line before hauling the puck up ice on a 2-on-1. Horcoff slid a pass across to Hemsky, who scored on a wraparound to make it 3-2. It was his 11th of the season.