Flyers thrash Red Wings to end losing streak

The Philadelphia Flyers have thrashed a depleted Detroit Red Wings side 5-0 to end a four-game losing streak in the NHL. Scott Hartnell (two goals, one assist) and Claude Giroux (one goal, two assists) were critical to the Flyers' victory as they took advantage of Detroit's long injury list. The Red Wings were missing Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk on Tuesday and they struggled to compete against the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. While Detroit took five more shots and won four more face-offs than the home team, the visitors' nine giveaways to three underlined their lack of quality compared to Philadelphia. Hartnell opened the scoring for the hosts in the 14th minute of the first period thanks to assists from Giroux and Kimmo Timonen. In the ninth minute of the second period it was 2-0 when Hartnell again finished off some good lead-up work from Giroux before Adam Hall scored the Flyers' third goal three minutes later. Giroux got on the scoresheet in the final stanza when Hartnell turned provider, while Sean Couturier rounded out the scoring for Philadelphia, who had last won on January 18 against the New York Islanders. The win saw the Flyers move into third in the Eastern Conference's Metropolitan Division and above the Carolina Hurricanes, who lost 3-0 away to the Montreal Canadiens. The Boston Bruins claimed the longest current winning streak in the NHL with a 6-2 thumping of the Florida Panthers. Milan Lucic struck twice for Boston as they registered their fourth win on the trot, while in St Louis, the Blues shut out the New Jersey Devils 3-0 to notch their third straight victory. Blues goaltender Jaroslav Halak earned his fourth shutout of the season. Boston have a four-point gap at the top of the East's Atlantic Division, while the Blues moved into the lead in the Western Conference's Central standings. St Louis have 77 points alongside Chicago but the Blackhawks have played more games, meaning they dropped below the Blues following their 5-4 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames. The Washington Capitals also needed overtime to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 5-4, while the Phoenix Coyotes cruised past the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 and the Minnesota Wild trumped the Anaheim Ducks 4-2. In other NHL results, the Toronto Maple Leafs won 3-2 over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Nashville Predators edged out the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2.