Penguins stay alive with rout of Flyers
PHILADELPHIA, April 18 (UPI) -- Jordan Staal had a hat trick among eight consecutive Pittsburgh goals Wednesday and the Penguins avoided elimination with a 10-3 crushing of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia still has a 3-1 advantage in the penalty-filled opening-round playoff series and will try for the second time to close it out Friday when Pittsburgh hosts Game 5.
Wednesday's game did not feature the brawls that have marked the series and brought about multiple suspensions -- but there were 26 penalties called during the contest. There were five 10-minute misconduct penalties handed out and Philadelphia's Zac Rinaldo was kicked out of the game late in the second period.
Philadelphia held a 3-2 lead with time running down in the first period, but Sidney Crosby tied it with 3:41 left and Stall put the Penguins in front for good with the first of his goals with 2:31 to play in the stanza.
Stall then scored the second and fifth of Pittsburgh's five second-period goals.
Both Ilya Bryzgalov and Sergei Bobrovsky gave up five goals on 18 shots for the Flyers, who have scored 23 goals in the series to 22 for the Flyers.
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22-of-25 shots for the Penguins.
Nationals rally against Astros
WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- Wilson Ramos drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning Wednesday, rallying the Washington Nationals to a 3-2 victory over Houston.
The surprising Nationals have won three in a row and have captured 10 of their 13 games this season.
Houston, which has dropped four straight, owned a 2-1 lead going into the ninth, but Fernando Rodriguez (0-2) loaded the bases on two walks and a single before being relieved by Wesley Wright.
Wright then walked Jayson Werth on a 3-2 count to bring in the tying run and, one out later, surrendered the game-winning sacrifice fly to Ramos.
That made a winner out of Ryan Mattheus (2-0), who in relief of Ryan Zimmerman gave up two hits and a run in the eighth that briefly gave Houston the lead. Henry Rodriguez worked a perfect ninth for his third save.
Houston held a 1-0 lead into the seventh before Roger Bernadina doubled in a run to tie it. The Astros regained a 2-1 advantage in the eighth on an RBI single by Jordan Schafer.
Bulls near NBA's No. 1 playoff seed
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 18 (UPI) -- Richard Hamilton and Joakim Noah combined to make 10-of-11 shots in the first half Wednesday, sending the Chicago Bulls to a 100-68 rout of Charlotte.
The Bulls inched closer to clinching the best record in the NBA and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, building a 15-point lead at intermission against the league's worst team. Charlotte has only five games remaining this season and has won only seven times.
Hamilton went 5-for-5 in the opening two quarters while Noah was 5-of-6 while the Bulls shot 54 percent as a team.
Hamilton finished with 20 points, John Lucas had 13 for the Bulls and Noah wound up with 12. Taj Gibson and Omer Asik combined for 27 Chicago rebounds.
The Bobcats made only 25 field goals, shooting 30 percent while going 1-of-8 from 3-point range. Kemba Walker led Charlotte with 16 points.
Chicago began the night with a 1 1/2-game lead over San Antonio for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and a 2 1/2-game advantage over Miami for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls have four games remaining.
Braves win seventh out of eight
ATLANTA, April 18 (UPI) -- Juan Francisco, Dan Uggla and Freddie Freeman each hit two-run home runs Wednesday, powering the Atlanta Braves to a 14-6 win over the New York Mets.
Freeman added a late sacrifice fly, while Michael Bourne and Martin Prado also each knocked in two runs as the Braves won for the seventh time in eight games.
Atlanta went 1-2-3 in the first inning, but piled up 16 hits and scored at least two runs in each subsequent inning except the fourth. Mets starter R.A. Dickey (2-1) gave up eight runs -- all earned -- on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. He allowed all three of the home runs.
Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens was touched for seven hits and four runs in four innings. He was replaced by Cristhian Martinez (1-0), who got the win with two innings of three-hit relief.
Ike Davis led off the Mets second with a home run, but Francisco connected with his two-run shot in the bottom of the inning. David Wright doubled in two runs for New York in the third before Prado doubled in two and Uggla hit his home run for a 6-3 Atlanta lead.
New York got within 6-4 but Freeman's home run came in the fifth and chased Dickey.
New York had single runs in the sixth and eighth while Atlanta got two runs each in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis had three hits and scored three runs and Wright knocked in three runs for the Mets.
