Simon Gagne and Scott Hartnell scored power-play goals on Sunday as Philadelphia handed Pittsburgh its first loss in a month.
Philadelphia won 3-1, its second win in a row, to open a two-point lead over Pittsburgh in the race for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Martin Biron made 27 saves and Darroll Powe added an empty-net goal for the Flyers, who have three games in hand on the Penguins.
PHOTO: AP
Kris Letang scored for Pittsburgh. The Penguins hadn’t lost since Feb. 22 at Washington, were 8-0-2 in their past 10 and lost in regulation for only the second time in 17 games under interim coach Dan Bylsma.
WILD 3, OILERS 0
At St Paul, Minnesota, Nicklas Backstrom made 31 saves for his seventh shutout of the season and Owen Nolan scored twice for the hosts.
The Wild are a point behind eighth-place Nashville in the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Edmonton is seventh, two points ahead of Nashville.
SHARKS 3, AVALANCHE 1
At San Jose, California, Milan Michalek had a goal and an assist, Evgeni Nabokov made 31 saves and San Jose reclaimed the overall NHL lead with its third home victory in four days.
Jamie McGinn also scored, Devin Setoguchi added an empty-netter and Alexei Semenov had two assists for San Jose, who took advantage of an unusual cluster of Shark Tank appearances to get back in the race for the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy. The Sharks improved their NHL-leading home record to 30-3-4 and earned their 106th point, two off the team record and one more than Detroit in the NHL standings.
Longtime Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan scored his first goal of the season for the last-place Avalanche, who lost their fourth straight and 11th in 14 games.
BRUINS 4, DEVILS 1
At Boston, Michael Ryder and Milan Lucic scored on deflections off New Jersey players for Eastern Conference-leading Boston.
The win clinched the Northeast Division title for Boston, who locked up a playoff berth on Saturday night when Florida lost to Columbus. Marc Savard and Chuck Kobasew also scored for Boston, 7-9-4 in its last 20 games.
In other games it was:
• Blackhawks 4, Kings 1
• Senators 2, Rangers 1
• Ducks 6, Coyotes 2
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