Philadelphia Flyers winger Simon Gagne, playing with two screws in a broken toe, scored an overtime goal to give his team a 5-4 win over the Boston Bruins and stave off NHL playoffs elimination on Friday.
“Being at home and being able to come back for Game Four and get the game-winner helping us to go and play another game, it’s definitely a good feeling,” Gagne told reporters. “Tonight we had the feeling we could come here and get the win and be able to get back in the series.”
Gagne had missed four games to have surgery on his toe, but managed to redirect Matt Carle’s feed to give the Flyers the victory and reduce the deficit in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-finals series to 3-1.
“If you look at the series, it’s been tight games,” Gagne said. “We lost the first game in overtime, after that we lost by one goal with two minutes left in the game [in Game Two].
“I think we played very well at home the last game, it was just we didn’t get those lucky bounces,” Gagne said.
The Flyers had looked poised to win the game in regulation until Mark Recchi scored his second goal of the game for the Bruins with just 31 seconds left to force the extra period.
Philadelphia had built a 3-1 lead on goals by Daniel Briere, Chris Pronger and Claude Giroux midway through the second period, before Michael Ryder narrowed the lead to 3-2 heading into the final period and Milan Lucic then tied it at 3-3 in the third.
Ville Leino, however, gave the Flyers hope of clinching victory in regulation when he tipped a Pronger shot past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask with just five minutes, 40 seconds left to play though Recchi was able to send the game into overtime five minutes later.
Blackhawks 7, Canucks 4
In Vancouver, Canada, Chicago captain Jonathan Toews scored three power-play goals and added two assists as the Blackhawks beat Vancouver and grabbed a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semi-final series.
Toews took over the NHL playoff scoring lead with 18 points as Chicago moved within one win of their second straight trip to the Western Conference finals. The Blackhawks have won three straight after dropping the series opener at home.
Patrick Sharp also scored on the power play and Tomas Kopecky added a goal shortly after another penalty expired. Chicago went 4 for 8 with the man advantage.
Brent Seabrook opened the scoring 18 seconds in, Dave Bolland scored into an empty net with 37 seconds left, and Antti Niemi made 26 saves for the Blackhawks, who can advance with a win in Chicago on Sunday.
The Canucks goals came from Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Kyle Wellwood and Alex Edler and Roberto Luongo made 27 saves.
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