The Flyers scored four goals in the first period and Antero Niittymaki made the early spurt stand up with 33 saves to lead Philadelphia to a 6-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night.
Petr Nedved, Niko Dimitrakos, Jeff Carter and Michal Handzus each scored in the first period to chase goalie Ray Emery and lead the Flyers to their fourth straight victory.
While catching the Eastern Conference-leading Senators in the standings seems out of reach, Philadelphia has helped its playoff push with wins over New Jersey and the New York Rangers this week.
PHOTO: AP
Peter Forsberg added a power-play goal, and Donald Brashear scored his fourth of the season in the third period for the Flyers, who have won five of six.
Capitals 3, Hurricanes 1
At Raleigh, North Carolina, rookie Alexander Ovechkin scored his 47th goal, Matt Pettinger added a short-handed score and Washington beat Carolina to snap an eight-game losing streak.
It was Pettinger's fifth with his team down a man, tying him for the best in the NHL, as Washington won for the first time since beating Pittsburgh two weeks ago. Five of the eight losses since were by one goal, with two going to a shootout and another decided in overtime.
Dainius Zubrus scored on the power play midway through the third period to seal it for the Capitals.
Islanders 5, Thrashers 1
At Uniondale, New York, Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists for the New York Islanders.
Rick DiPietro earned his career-best 27th win by making 22 saves. Mike York, Sean Bergenheim, Alexei Yashin and Bruno Gervais added goals for New York.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 45th of the season for Atlanta, which had a three-game winning streak snapped. With Montreal's win over Toronto on Saturday, Atlanta fell one point behind the Canadiens for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders are six points behind the Canadiens and will face them in Montreal on Tuesday. The top eight teams will qualify for the playoffs.
Bruins 5, Sabres 4
At Boston, Marco Sturm scored late in the third period, Brad Boyes recorded a goal and two assists, and Boston snapped a three-game losing streak, hours after the Bruins fired general manager Mike O'Connell.
Glen Murray, Tom Fitzgerald and Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston, which defeated Buffalo for the first time since March 13, 2004, and improved to 1-6 against the Sabres this season. Buffalo had outscored Boston 23-12 while winning the first six games of the eight-game season series.
Before the game, O'Connell was dismissed and replaced by assistant GM Jeff Gorton, who will run the club the rest of the season. Boston is 28-32-12 but well out of playoff contention as the Bruins are in 13th place in the Eastern Conference.
Canadiens 6, Maple Leafs 2
At Montreal, Radek Bonk and Michael Ryder each scored twice and Cristobal Huet made 26 saves as Montreal completed a sweep of its two-game home set against Toronto.
Andrei Markov and Garth Murray also scored for Montreal, which moved one point ahead of Atlanta into the eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 77 points.
Toronto captain Mats Sundin scored twice but the Maple Leafs lost for the second time in Montreal in three days. They are in 12th place in the East, seven points behind the Canadiens to 12th overall. The top eight teams make the playoffs.
Lightning 4, Rangers 3, SO
At Tampa, Florida, Brad Richards scored the lone goal in a shootout and John Grahame stopped three shots in the tiebreaker to lift Tampa Bay over the New York Rangers.
Tampa Bay got goals from Martin St. Louis, Fredrik Modin and Cory Sarich. The Lightning are 4-0-1 over the past five games. The Rangers, who are tied atop the Atlantic Division with the Philadelphia Flyers, lost for the second straight night in a shootout.
New York's Jaromir Jagr, the NHL leader in goals and points, had a goal and assist but was stopped on the Rangers' first shootout attempt. Jagr scored his 51st goal in the second period to move past Vic Hadfield (1971-1972) into second place on the Rangers' single-season, goal-scoring list. He is one short of tying Adam Graves' team record set in 1993-1994.
Sharks 5, Wild 1
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Jonathan Cheechoo scored two goals, including his team-record 45th of the season, to help the surging San Jose beat Minnesota.
Joe Thornton had three assists and tied San Jose's single-season record with 53 in only 44 games with the Sharks, 7-1-2 in their last 10 contests.
Brian Rolston scored the lone goal for Minnesota. It was the fifth loss in five games for the Wild.
Oilers 3, Canucks 2
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Steve Staios' third-period goal helped Edmonton salvage the final game of a three-game series with Vancouver.
After losing to the Canucks one in regulation and another in a shootout, the Oilers finished the set in a tie with the Canucks for seventh place in the Western Conference standings.
Ryan Smyth and Sergei Samsonov also scored for the Oilers, who blew a third-period lead on Thursday before hanging on to finally beat the Canucks on Saturday.
Dwayne Roloson made 23 saves to improve to 3-3-3 since being acquired by the Oilers from Minnesota.
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