Gudas, Giroux score late as Flyers beat Avs 4-2
DENVER (AP) Radko Gudas and Claude Giroux scored 19 seconds apart late in the third period, Steve Mason made 32 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Thursday night.
Gudas fired past Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov to tie the game at 2-all at the 14:17 mark of the third. Giroux then scored at 14:36.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Flyers, who are tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Ryan White had an empty-net goal in the final seconds.
Nick Holden and John Mitchell scored for the Avalanche, who were again without their two top scorers, Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon. Both are out with knee injuries.
Varlamov had 41 saves.
In the Western Conference playoff race, Colorado is three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the final wild-card spot.
The Avs will look to close the gap when they host the Wild on Saturday.
Philadelphia tied the game at 1-all when Shayne Gostisbehere's slap shot deflected off Bellemare's stick into the net at 12:36 of the second period.
Mitchell put the Avs back ahead with a tap-in goal at 6:13 of the third period. But the Flyers answered with two goals to pull ahead for good late in the period.
Earlier, Colorado looked to be in complete control, but couldn't find the back of the net despite a 15-shot first period.
One of its best chances in the period came during a short-handed opportunity, when Gabriel Landeskog and Shawn Matthias both had successive shots stopped. Landeskog then got another, and hit the crossbar.
Mikhail Grigorenko gave the Avs a 1-0 lead when his chance redirected off teammate Holden's skate early in the second period.
NOTES: Avalanche coach Patrick Roy didn't give a timetable for when centers Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon might be able to return from knee injuries. As part of an otherwise successful 3-for-3 road trip in Canada, Duchene suffered his injury in Vancouver on March 16 and MacKinnon was injured in Calgary on Friday. ... Duchene and MacKinnon are expected to miss at least one more game - Saturday's game against the Wild.
