Bruins 2, Flyers 1
Brad Marchand netted a power-play goal to snap a tie with just under four minutes remaining in the third period as the Boston Bruins officially secured a postseason berth with a 2-1 road triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.
Nathan Horton scored for the third time in as many games and Tim Thomas turned aside 27 shots for Boston (42-23-10), which now leads the second-place Montreal Canadiens (40-29-7) by seven points in the Northeast Division with a game in hand.
Veteran Mark Recchi was credited with an assist for his 1,531st career point to tie Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey for 12th place in NHL history.
With the game tied at 1-1, Flyers' captain Mike Richards was whistled for a high sticking penalty. The Bruins capitalized quickly as Marchand cleaned up a rebound off defenseman Dennis Seidenberg's point shot for his 20th goal of the season and first in 13 games.
Thomas made the modest offense stand up to improve to 10-2-2 in his career against the Flyers.
Kris Versteeg reached the 20-goal plateau for the third time in four seasons and Brian Boucher finished with 34 saves for Philadelphia (45-20-10), which fell to 5-1-4 in its last 10 games.
The Flyers are just two points ahead of both the Washington Capitals (44-22-10) and Pittsburgh Penguins (45-23-8) in the race for the Eastern Conference penthouse.