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Alexander Radulov sent a sigh of relief through the arena on Tuesday night.
Radulov scored 40 seconds into overtime as the Dallas Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 to end an eight-game winless streak.
On a two-man breakaway Youth Sam Hubbard Jersey , Tyler Seguin passed from the right side across to Radulov, who beat Philadelphia goalie Petr Mrazek for the game-winner.
”I was going in shooting the whole time,” said Seguin, whot got his 500th career point on the play. ”but when I knew it was Radulov and the goalie was probably all over me. I knew he wasn’t going to miss that.”
The Stars were 0-6-2 during their longest stretch without a win since moving to Dallas in 1993. With five games left, the Stars are five points out of the Western Conference’s final playoff berth.
Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock felt the reaction.
”For everybody it’s relief, and now you can move forward,” he said. ”We can’t live on frenetic effort every shift with no structure. … Today didn’t have much structure in it.”
Seguin had two assists and Radulov had one. Kari Lehtonen stopped 31 shots to end a personal seven-game winless streak.
”It wasn’t a pretty one today, but Kari had some huge saves, you know,” Radulov said. ”The guys blocked shots, and at some point we had luck too.”
Philadelphia extended its points streak to six games (3-0-3) and remained two points ahead of New Jersey for the Eastern Conference’s top wild card.
”We don’t like the way we gave up the second point, which we do too much in OT,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. ”Sometimes when you try to do too much 3-on-3 things like that happen.”
Radek Faksa had the game’s first goal just past midway into the first period for Dallas and Brett Ritchie tied it 2-2 on the power play midway through the second.
In between, Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov scored for Philadelphia Martin Fehervary Capitals Jersey , with Shayne Gostisbehere assisting on both goals. For 38 minutes after that, Lehtonen gave up nothing.
”Things have been tough and now we just kept going and get rewarded at the end, so it was sweet,” Lehtonen said. ”The fun part was that they were getting shots and I was able to keep making the saves. It goes to focus on the next shift and believe that we are gonna get that one or two chances, able to score a goal.”
Mrazek made 20 saves for the Flyers.
Until Radulov scored, there wasn’t much indication that Dallas could win.
”We had five people for 2 1/2 periods staring at the puck and all moving towards the puck, trying to help,” Hitchcock said. ”It’s a little bit like kids’ soccer.”
Faksa scored with 9:10 remaining in the first. Antoine Roussel’s shot from above the left faceoff circle went wide left, bouncing off the boards and out to Faksa at the right of the net. He put in a backhand off Mrazek’s left skate as the goalie scrambled to get back to that side.
Konecny tied it with 3:09 left in the opening period with a wrist shot from just inside the right circle that went under the crossbar.
Dallas had seven of the first eight shots on goal, but Philadelphia outshot the Stars 10-3 for the remainder of the first period.
The Flyers took the lead just 2:03 into the second. Wayne Simmonds passed to Provorov in the slot. Before he fell to the ice, Provorov put a wrist shot inside the left goalpost.
It took the Stars just 19 seconds into their first power play of the second to tie it. Standing just to the left of the net, Ritchie tipped in Radulov’s shot from the right circle.
NOTES: Konecny has 17 of his 23 goals in the last 31 games. … Claude Giroux’s assist on Konecny’s goal was his eighth in the last four games and 66th of the season. … Radulov reached 40 assists for the first time in his career. … Before Ritchie’s goal, Philadelphia had killed 12 of 13 penalties over six-plus games.
UP NEXT
Flyers: Finish a three-game trip on Wednesday at Colorado.
Stars: Visit Minnesota on Thursday before returning for the home finale on Saturday vs. the Wild.
So far the trade for Chris Paul to give the Houston Rockets another superstar to help James Harden has worked famously.
Now the two, who have both had their fair share of playoff disappointments Geron Christian Color Rush Jersey , will try to carry their regular-season success into the postseason when the Rockets open a first-round series with Minnesota on Sunday night.
The guards have been effusive in their praise for one another, with Harden recently joking that his relationship with the nine-time All-Star was ”love at first sight.” Paul didn’t go quite that far, but a huge smile crossed his often serious face when asked how their pairing has worked.
”Unbelievable,” he said. ”You just (don’t) get this opportunity too often in a career to play with somebody like James … you get a chance to appreciate greatness.
”What he’s doing on a nightly basis and stuff like that, it’s crazy and I’m in awe,” Paul continued. ”I’m grateful I get to play alongside him.”
When told of what Paul said about him, Harden was quick to answer.
”You can tell,” he said. ”It feels like it’s been forever but it’s not even been a year yet.”
Their work in the regular season led the Rockets to a franchise-record 65 wins, their first No. 1 seed and sixth straight playoff appearance. They are looking to win the title for the first time capturing back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
For the 32-year-old Paul, it’s a chance for him to finally shake off years off playoff woes after making nine playoff trips without advancing past the second round. But if he is haunted by the ghosts of playoffs past, he wouldn’t acknowledge it and was dismissive when asked if he thought this was his best chance to win it all.
”I don’t know,” he said. ”I don’t think about all that.”
What he and the Rockets do know is that they’re facing a talented team in the eighth-seeded Timberwolves, who had to win their last regular-season game to get into the postseason. They ended the NBA’s longest active playoff drought with their berth, putting them back in the postseason for the first time since 2004 when they lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
Getting the Timberwolves into the playoffs is a huge accomplishment for the entire team David Justice Jersey , but might mean just a little more to star Karl-Anthony Towns, who made a vow the night Minnesota selected him with the top overall pick in the 2015 draft.
”It means more than I think words can express honestly,” he said. ”I made a promise to … Flip Saunders and it meant a lot to me that I was able to keep my word.”
Some things to know as the Timberwolves and Rockets open their series:
BACK HOME
The series is a homecoming for Minnesota’s Jimmy Butler, who grew up in Tomball, a suburb about 35 miles from downtown Houston. But he insists he won’t have any time to get back out there this week.
”Nope,” he said. ”Zero (time). I ain’t even going home. I’m here to work.”
But he did spend a little time on Saturday reminiscing about his high school days when he idolized a former Rockets star.
”I used to walk around the hallways and in the gym thinking I was Tracy McGrady,” he said. ”I remember it like it was yesterday. He was my favorite player. I wanted to wear his number, wear his tennis shoes, all of that good stuff.”
Butler, who returned on April 6 after missing 17 games with a knee injury, said he’s fully recovered from his injury and is ”well-rested” entering the playoffs.
PLAYOFF HISTORY
This is the second time these teams have met in the playoffs. Their other meeting came in Minnesota’s first trip in 1997, when the Timberwolves were swept in three games. That Houston team was led by Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley, and the Wolves featured Kevin Garnett Authentic Will Dissly Jersey , Stephon Marbury and Tom Gugliotta.
LIMIT KAT FROM LONG RANGE
The Rockets are resigned to the fact that Towns, who led the NBA in double-doubles, will get his points under the basket and plenty of rebounds.
”He’s going to get a double-double,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said. ”That’s who he is.”
However, they are not OK with letting him shoot 3-pointers. The 7-foot Towns ranked 14th in the league with a 42 percent average from 3-point range and knocked down a career-high 120 3-pointers this season.
”We (can’t) leave him open or let him walk into a 3 because we’re not guarding him,” D’Antoni said. ”We have to be aware of that. You can’t take away his post-ups and his moves in there. He’s going to score on anybody, but you can do a really good job on the 3s.”
HARDEN’S MOTIVATION
Despite finishing as the runner-up for MVP last season and being a front-runner for this year’s award, Harden still faces plenty of criticism for some of his past performances in the playoffs, notably, a terrible performance in an embarrassing 114-75 elimination loss to San Antonio in the conference semifinals last season.
But he has never been motivated by criticism, and he finds his drive in a far different place.
”Just going out there and being the best that I can be,” he said. ”There’s no negativity that someone can say that can motivate me. Some people can get motivated by that. I don’t really care.”
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