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NHL-Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League playoff games

April 24 (The Sports Xchange) - Highlights of Thursday's National Hockey League playoff games. - - - Bruins 3, Red Wings 2 (overtime) Jarome Iginla's overtime goal gave Boston a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Thursday, putting the Bruins 3-1 up in their best-of-seven series. Iginla was credited with the goal after the puck appeared to go in off the leg of Detroit defenseman Dan DeKeyser. Defenseman Torey Krug and left winger Milan Lucic also scored for Boston while goalie Tuukka Rask stopped 35 shots to earn the win. The Red Wings jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the second but the Bruins got one back before the end of the period and equalised 1:15 into the third. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall and center Pavel Datsyuk each had a goal and an assist for Detroit. Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson was a late replacement for No. 1 Jimmy Howard, who came down with flu, and made 37 saves in his first career playoff game. - - - Wild 2, Avalanche 1 In keeping with the playoff trend in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild dominated at home, beating the Colorado Avalanche 2-1 to even their first round playoff series at 2-2. Western Conference teams playing at home were 13-1 entering Thursday night's games and the Wild made that number 14-1 on the strength of goals by defenseman Jared Spurgeon and center Charlie Coyle, along with 11 saves by goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Colorado got a goal from Ryan O'Reilly, and goalie Semyon Varlamov had 30 saves to keep the game close, but the Avalanche offense struggled, generating just a dozen shots in total. The Wild got the only goal of the first period when Zach Parise kicked a puck back to Spurgeon on the blue line. Spurgeon launched a shot on net that sailed just inside the post for a 1-0 Minnesota lead and his first career playoff goal. Past the midway point of the game, Coyle gave the Wild a 2-0 lead on a power play but the Avalanche answered just 30 seconds later, O'Reilly's long range shot from the top of the right circle fooling Kuemper. - - - Kings 6, Sharks 3 Justin Williams and Marian Gaborik both scored twice, goaltender Jonathan Quick made 33 saves and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the San Jose Sharks 6-3 in Game 4 of their opening-round playoff series. The win staves off elimination for the Kings, and they will try to extend the series on Saturday in San Jose still trailing 3-1 after Thursday's win. Los Angeles took a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes on the back of three second-period goals, Williams scoring two in the frame. His first goal came on a soft shot from the right boards that Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi failed to control. Williams gave the Kings their third lead of the night when he tapped home defenseman Willie Mitchell's shot that rebounded off the back boards at 16:07. Kings center Tyler Toffoli made it 4-2 with his first playoff goal of the series. Gaborik's second goal of the night at 34 seconds of the third gave the Kings a commanding three-goal lead and ended Niemi's night. San Jose center Joe Pavelski netted a power-play goal at 11:36 to bring San Jose within two again, but winger Dustin Brown added an empty-net goal at 18:32 to close out the scoring. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)