Boston: Johnny Boychuk scored the tiebreaking goal with 6:06 left in the third period, Milan Lucic had two goals and the Boston Bruins clinched the Eastern Conference’s best record with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon.
David Krejci also scored for the Bruins and Patrice Bergeron extended his consecutive point streak to 11 games, setting up Boychuk’s go-ahead score.
Wayne Simmonds and Jay Rosehill scored for the Flyers, who are in a tight race with a group of teams for a playoff spot.
Tuukka Rask stopped 24 shots for the Bruins, who had lost their past two games. Ray Emery made 37 saves for the Flyers. Philadelphia has lost three straight.
Semyon Varlamov tied the franchise single-season record for goalie wins held by Colorado coach Patrick Roy and Paul Stastny had another big game in his hometown in a penalty-filled victory over St. Louis.
Stastny had a goal and two assists and Nathan Mackinnon had a goal and an assist for Colorado, which has won six in a row and has 106 points, third-most in franchise history. Roy became the fifth coach in NHL history to win 50 games in his first season.
Varlamov made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and NHL-leading 40th win, matching Roy’s total in 2000-01. The Avalanche reached 50 wins for the second time in franchise history and tied the franchise mark with 24 road victories.
The Blues fell two points behind Boston, which beat the Flyers 5-2, for first place overall.
