The Philadelphia Flyers frustrated the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL

The Philadelphia Flyers dealt a blow to Chicago's bid for home advantage in the NHL play-offs on Wednesday, stunning the Blackhawks 4-1.

Chicago could have moved within two points of the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference's Central division standings but were held back by the Flyers, who surged to a three-goal lead with a period to play before denying the Blackhawks any chance of a comeback in the final stanza.

Philadelphia's Wayne Simmonds scored the only goal of the first period, while Ryan White and Claude Giroux extended the home side's lead in the middle stanza.

It took less than three minutes of the final period for the Blackhawks to pull a goal back through Andrew Shaw but Michael Raffl halted the visitors' momentum with just over four minutes remaining to clinch victory.

The result left Chicago on 94 points - third in the Central standings - with Nashville (98) and the St Louis Blues (99) ahead of them.

The top two teams in each division are given home-ice advantage for game one, two, five and seven in the Conference quarter-finals.

In Calgary, the Dallas Stars registered a third consecutive win, triumphing 4-3 after a shoot-out over the home-town Flames.

In Wednesday's other fixture, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-3.