PHILADELPHIA — Right winger Wayne Simmonds scored a hat trick, goaltender Steve Mason made 34 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers avoided elimination by defeating the New York Rangers 5-2 in Game 6 of their playoff series Tuesday night.
Game 7 is Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers are 2-1 on home ice in the series.
Defenseman Erik Gustafsson and center Claude Giroux also had goals for the Flyers, who will try to become the first team to win two in a row in the series.
Left winger Carl Hagelin ended Mason’s shutout bid with 6:34 left in the game. Center Mats Zuccarello scored a goal in the final minute.
Mason, who didn’t start the first three games of the series because of an upper-body injury, was outstanding for the second time in three games. He outplayed Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, an eight-time All-Star and former Vezina Trophy winner. Lundqvist allowed four goals on 23 shots and was replaced in goal by Cam Talbot to start the third period.
Simmonds gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal in the first period. Shortly after Lundqvist robbed him with an excellent save, Simmonds scored off his own rebound in front for his second goal of the series.
Simmonds made it 2-0 just 1:32 into the second period. Center Brayden Schenn broke in with Simmonds and took a shot, but didn’t get all of it and the puck trickled to Simmonds at the side of the net. He fired it in before an out-of-position Lundqvist could slide across to stop it.
Gustafsson made it 3-0 later in the period on a breakaway goal seconds after leaving the penalty box. He picked up a loose puck and fired a shot between Lundqvist’s legs for his first career playoff goal.
Mason made his best save of the game right before Gustafsson’s goal when he robbed left winger Benoit Pouliot with a glove save on a point-blank shot.
NBA
Wizards 75, Bulls 69
John Wall scored 24 points and Nene added 20 as visiting Washington polished off a 4-1 Eastern Conference series victory over Chicago.
Bradley Beal scored 17 points and Marcin Gortat grabbed 13 rebounds as the Wizards picked up their first playoff series win since 2005. Trevor Ariza had nine rebounds to go along with six points for No. 5 seed Washington, which will take on Indiana or Atlanta in the East semifinals.
Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler scored 16 points apiece for the Bulls, who shot 33.3 percent from the field. Taj Gibson scored 12 points off the bench and Joakim Noah collected 18 rebounds, seven assists and six points for No. 4 seed Chicago.
Wall scored five straight points to give the Wizards a 70-62 cushion with 5:22 left before the Bulls cut it back to a one-possession deficit on D.J. Augustin’s free throws with 2:17 to play. Gortat had three straight offensive rebounds on the next possession and Nene twice tipped out an offensive board on missed free throws before Wall hit a pair at the line to help Washington put it away.