PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Scott Hartnell recorded two goals and
two assists and All-Star Jeff Carter also tallied twice as the
Philadelphia Flyers scored four times in the third period en
route to a 5-2 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
Captain Mike Richards scored a goal and set up another while
Joffrey Lupul and defenseman Kimmo Timonen notched a pair of
assists apiece for Philadelphia, which improved to 10-4-1 in its
last 15 games.
"I don't care if I score every game. As long as we win, I'm
happy, so it doesn't matter to me," Carter said. "It's nice to
put some pucks in and help the team, but that's not what I'm
worried about."
Flyers coach John Stevens credited his team's aggressiveness on
the power play for its success on Tuesday. Philadelphia went
2-for-6 with the man advantage.
"We have two of the best net guys in the league with Hartnell
and (Mike) Knuble," Stevens said. "We have guys that have a lot
of composure with the puck. Guys like Richards, Kimmo, Jeff
Carter and Lupul. (Defenseman Braydon Coburn) has a great
one-timer.
"You put pucks on the net when people are there and good things
are going to happen."
Martin Biron made 27 saves to improve to 6-2-0 with one shutout
in his last nine appearances.
Maxim Afinogenov and Jochen Hecht scored for Buffalo, which fell
to 2-4-1 in its last seven contests.
"We just made some mistakes we shouldn't have made in the
third," Afinogenov said. "We played pretty good until the
third, and those mistakes hurt us.
"We have to forget about that because we have 16 games left and
we need to make the playoffs. We need to push, and we have to
make a run now and win some games. We need to get a good streak
going."
Thomas Vanek, who leads the Sabres with 33 goals, has seen this
scenario before.
"We are in the same situation that we were in last year," Vanek
said. "We know that we can't wait to the last two weeks of the
season to win all those games and get in the playoffs. We can't
wait for the teams ahead of us to lose games. We have to go out
and do our job."
Patrick Lalime turned aside 25 shots before being pulled in the
third period in favor of Mikael Tellqvist, who finished with
three saves.
With the game tied at 1-1, Carter deflected a centering feed
from Lupul past Lalime just 27 seconds into the third period to
give the Flyers a lead they would not relinquish.
"When you get a goal in the first 30 seconds of the third
period, it's a huge momentum switch in the game," Biron said.
"We used that to our advantage."
Richards doubled the advantage 4 1/2 minutes later and Carter
added his second of the night - and team-leading 38th of the
season - just 85 seconds later, tucking the puck past Lalime.
Hartnell gave the Flyers a 5-1 bulge after deflecting the puck
off his chest and past Tellqvist for his 24th tally of the
campaign.
"We got pucks to the net," Hartnell said. "Richards got a tip
on a shot from (Timonen). Those kind of things and being able to
battle around the net led to some goals on the power play - and
hopefully, will lead to more success."