11/2/09 6-2 Win SCORING 1st 2nd 3rd OT SO Total TBL 0 1 1 - - 2 PHI 2 3 1 - - 6 _______________________________ SHOTS 1st 2nd 3rd OT SO Total TBL 5 11 12 - - 28 PHI 12 10 9 - - 31

*** PostGame Interviews & Coach’s Press Conference ***

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Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) – Jeff Carter and Mike Richards both finished with two goals and an assist, propelling the Philadelphia Flyers to a 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Scott Hartnell added a goal and two assists for the Flyers, who recorded their second consecutive six-goal performance. They beat Carolina, 6-1, on Saturday.

James van Riemsdyk added three assists in the win, while Ray Emery made 26 saves.

Mike Smith got the start in net for the Lightning and allowed five goals on 18 shots through nearly 27 minutes of play. Former Flyer Antero Niittymaki made 12 saves the rest of the way.

Jeff Halpern and Steven Stamkos had the goals for Tampa Bay, which has dropped five of its last seven.

“Sometimes you just have bad games and you just chalk it up,” Lightning head coach Rick Tocchet. “We had a bad game against New Jersey [Saturday, losing in a shootout] and I thought they would answer the bell here against the Flyers but, they leaned on their sticks and it seemed like they won every battle. It was kind of frustrating watching it. You were hoping for somebody to get things going, get us woken up but we didn’t wake up.”

The Flyers got on the board 8:29 into the game on Richards’ seventh goal of the year, then made it a 2-0 game with 44.7 seconds left in the opening period.

With Philadelphia on the power play, Hartnell managed to sneak the puck in by the left post.

Then, 3:20 into the second period Carter snapped a seven-game goalless drought with his fifth score of the season. Van Riemsdyk skated behind the net with the puck and sent a pass to the low left circle for Carter, whose shot beat Smith to make it a 3-0 game.

Tampa Bay got the goal back just under two minutes later, as Stamkos intercepted a clearing pass, set up in the right circle and wristed a shot past Emery at 5:18.

But the Flyers turned the momentum around almost immediately, posting a pair of goals 35 seconds apart. David Laliberte got his second of the season just 1:06 after Stamkos’ score, and Richards’ backhander made it a 5-1 game at 6:59.

“It’s great to see Laliberte and van Riemsdyk and guys like that take advantage of the extra ice time and use this as an opportunity,” Flyers head coach John Stevens said.

That was the end of Smith’s night, as Niittymaki entered and kept the Flyers off the scoreboard for the rest of the period.

Carter, though, struck again for the Flyers’ second power-play score. With Philadelphia pressuring the net, Niittymaki made several saves but couldn’t control the puck. Carter came crashing in and whacked the bouncing puck across the goal line at 8:56.

Halpern got the final goal of the contest with 5:03 remaining.

Game Notes

Claude Giroux and Chris Pronger each had two assists for the Flyers…Richards snapped a six-game goalless streak…Prior to signing with the Lightning this offseason, Niittymaki spent his first five seasons with Philadelphia…On Monday, the Flyers announced forward Simon Gagne will have surgery on two small hernias in his right groin on Tuesday and will miss the next six-to-eight weeks. Gagne had 34 goals for the Flyers last season, second-most on the team.

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Scoring Summary

1st Period
08:29 PHI Mike Richards (7) Tip-In – Assists: C. Pronger (8) & S. Hartnell (6)
19:15 PHI PPG – Scott Hartnell (4) Backhand – Assists: M. Richards (7) & C. Giroux (4)

2nd Period
03:20 PHI Jeff Carter (5) Wrist Shot – Assists: J. van Riemsdyk (9) & C. Pronger (9)
05:18 TBL Steven Stamkos (11) Wrist Shot – Assists: none
06:24 PHI David Laliberte (2) Wrist Shot – Assists: J. Carter (8) & J. van Riemsdyk (10)
06:59 PHI Mike Richards (8) Backhand – Assists: S. Hartnell (7) & C. Giroux (5)

3rd Period
08:56 PHI PPG – Jeff Carter (6) Wrist Shot – Assists: J. van Riemsdyk (11) & K. Timonen (7)
14:57 TBL Jeff Halpern (1) Assists: J. Wright (2) & A. Tanguay (4)

Penalty Summary

1st Period
11:37 TBL Mattias Ohlund : Holding – 2 min
17:40 TBL Matt Walker : Holding – 2 min

2nd Period
01:13 TBL David Hale : Hooking – 2 min
01:13 PHI David Laliberte : Diving – 2 min
03:27 PHI Arron Asham : Fighting (maj) – 5 min
03:27 TBL Zenon Konopka : Fighting (maj) – 5 min
14:44 PHI Claude Giroux : Tripping – 2 min

3rd Period
03:19 PHI Arron Asham : Hi-sticking – 2 min
07:16 TBL Zenon Konopka : Tripping – 2 min
10:56 TBL Victor Hedman : Roughing – 2 min
10:56 TBL Victor Hedman served by Steve Downie : Roughing – 2 min
10:56 PHI Mike Richards : Roughing – 2 min

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 PM and is filed under Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux, David Laliberte, Flyers, Game Recaps, James van Riemsdyk, Jeff Carter, John Stevens, Mike Richards, Ray Emery, Regular Season, Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, Tampa Bay Lightning, Wachovia Center. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.