Flyers in playoff position after defeating Blackhawks

CHICAGO --Simplicity is working for the Philadelphia Flyers, who moved into a Stanley Cup Playoff position with a 3-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Wednesday.
Radko Gudas scored the game-winning goal midway through the third period and the Flyers (34-23-12, 80 points), who fought back from two one-goal deficits, picked up two points to move past the Detroit Red Wings (34-25-11, 79 points) for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia defeated Detroit 4-3 at home Tuesday.
"We're just trying to keep it simple, not trying to play out of structure or anything like that," said Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds, who assisted on the game-tying goal by Brayden Schenn at 13:02 of the second period. "Simple is better for us. Every time we play simple, we manage pucks and don't try to get too fancy, the majority of the time we end up on the better side of the scoreboard."

Philadelphia took its first lead at 9:53 of the third period on Gudas' goal. His shot from the right point hit the stick of Chicago defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and bounced past goalie Scott Darling.
"I was just trying to get it through the first guy," said Gudas, who scored his third goal in the past six games. "Lucky enough it bounced off somebody and went in. I'm glad it went in and I'm glad for the [win]. If you work hard the bounces are going to go your way."
The Blackhawks (41-24-6) didn't get enough bounces. They made a strong push late in the third but were unable to beat Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth, who made 24 saves. Chicago's losing streak reached a season-high four games (0-3-1).
"We're headed into a stretch here where we've got 11 games left and we've lost four in a row," said right wing Patrick Kane, who had an assist to push his NHL-leading point total to 90. "Obviously [it's] not the stretch we want. I don't want to say it's panic time, but at the same time we have to shore things up before playoffs come into play here."

Ryan White scored in the first period and Schenn scored in the second for Philadelphia, which is 8-1-1 in its past 10 games. Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews scored for Chicago, and Darling made 26 saves.
Hossa and White scored in a fast-paced first period that featured a combined five penalties. Each team scored on special teams, with Hossa getting a shorthanded goal at 8:18 to put Chicago up 1-0 and White tying it 1-1 at 18:48 on a power-play goal.
Hossa's goal was the 497th of his NHL career and second shorthanded goal of the season. A turnover gave him a breakaway and he beat Neuvirth with a shot between the goalie's right pad and blocker.
Two minutes later the Blackhawks got a 5-on-3 power play for 1:53 but had two shots on goal and failed to score. The Blackhawks, who entered with the League's third-best power play, went 0-for-3 with the man-advantage and hasn't scored a power-play goal in the past three games (0-for-14).

"It's tough," Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook said. "I think we were up 1-0 at the time. It would have been nice to stretch that lead. We got some looks. We got some chances. It just didn't go in for us."
After White tied it, Toews put Chicago ahead 2-1 at 4:58 of the second with a goal off the rebound of his shot at the right post. It rewarded a reworked top line of him, Kane and Tomas Fleischmann for a strong shift.
The Flyers countered with Schenn's goal at 13:02 on a play that began with simplicity and finished with creativity. Simmonds forced a turnover. Schenn got the puck and fed Claude Giroux for a rush up the ice, then trailed the play to get a pass back from Giroux for the shot.
"That's the way he sees the ice," Schenn said of Giroux. "Actually I was going to glide in a little bit but then I realized it was Duncan Keith chasing him. So I thought I would get on my horse a little bit and he made that spin-o-rama pass back to me. I was able to put it in."
In the third Hossa couldn't convert another breakaway and Neuvirth withstood the Blackhawks' late pressure.
"They didn't put many pucks on the net in the third but they had four shots and I think three out of the four were good scoring chances," Neuvirth said. "I was actually enjoying the last few minutes."