flyers notes the flyers blew a lead over the buffalo sabres in the second period but kevin dineen s th career hat trick powered them to their th consecutive win over the sabres who have now lost in a row alexander mogilny led the comeback scoring his th and th goals of the season which tied the game at in the nd period and in the rd tommy soderstrom stopped of shots on goal to improve his own record to as he was tested by mogilny and lafontaine all night roster move andre faust was once again recalled from hershey shawn cronin was a healthy scratch lines eklund lindros recchi beranek brind amour dineen lomakin butsayev conroy faust acton brown galley bowen yushkevich hawgood carkner mcgill tommy soderstrom game summary say if anybody from buffalo is reading this where did you people get that woman who sang the anthems we had to turn down the volume the flyers defense started out the game showing everybody why the flyers have been shutting teams out lately by holding the sabres to only shots in the first period they then showed everybody why they will be playing golf sunday when they gave up shots in the last two periods maybe tommy told them that he was getting bored back there mark recchi opened the scoring so fast that if you blinked you missed it after buffalo won the faceoff and dumped tommy wrapped the puck around the boards to eric way up on his left eric dropped it to galley and he sent it ahead to recchi steaming out of the zone mark skated into the center circle passed the puck to himself through the legs of richard smehlik skated around him and in on fuhr smehlik was pulling at him all the way through the zone with his stick recchi drifted right drifted back left and slid the puck back to the right past fuhr for a flyers lead at it was so beautiful eric and garry should turn down their assists the flyers kept the pressure on fuhr for a while after that but he was strong and kept the flyers from doing further damage the game then became a defensive struggle for a while the sabres got the first chance on the power play when terry carkner took a boarding minor at for crunching dale hawerchuk into the boards in the flyers zone lafontaine got the only scoring chance and not a terribly good one as the flyers smothered the sabres power play mogilny got a post after it was over the th consecutive penalty kill for the flyers keith carney took a holding penalty at for taking down mark recchi to give the flyers a power play the best penalty killing team in the league didn t allow the flyers a shot on goal although the flyers did create a good scoring chance for lindros who partially fanned on his shot towards the end of the period the play started going end to end but everybody kept missing the net greg hawgood took an interference penalty at to give the sabres another power play but they couldn t get anything going and the fans expressed their displeasure particularly when they iced the puck shots were buffalo after the flyers had led at one point mike emrick interviewed flyers president jay snider between periods jay was disappointed to not make the playoffs but not discouraged this was considered a rebuilding year after the trade and he seemed very happy with the way the season went when asked if he agonized over the trade he said that it was russ farwell s trade and not his that it only was an issue for him and ed snider as far as the money but yes there was some agonizing and they d do it all over again when asked how the coaching situation would be handled for next year he said that it s russ call and russ will evaluate things at the end of the season he feels that they re years away from a shot at the cup he expects to get into the playoffs next year have a shot at a division title the following year and a shot at the finals the year after that this based on the current level of play and anticipated improvements over the summer he s very happy with the re alignment he called it outstanding happy with the current expansion feels that the talent pool is big enough with the unflux of europeans but feels that they must make sure existing franchises are stable seemed to like the idea of playing in the olympics booo but said that there was a definite split among owners and that this certainly would only happen in four years if there was a consensus the sabres gave the flyers their second power play of the game when brad may took a tripping penalty at of the second the flyers had a little trouble getting started but eventually did hawgood took a pass as he was moving throug the neutral zone and handed the puck to eklund just outside the sabres blue line along the right boards eklund carried into the zone nad passed across to dineen who tried a one timer from between the blue line and the top of the left circle he half fanned on it and sent the puck trickling through the slot fuhr didn t know where it was though and hawgood won the race to it and flipped it into essentially an open net at then mogilny on a breakaway he slipped through two flyers at the blue line and went in on soderstrom he went with the backhander but soderstrom was all over it the flyers then took some bad discipline type penalties that really hurt them viacheslav butsayev took a double minor for roughing and high sticking when barnaby got under his skin and drew one minor then according to gary dornhoefer took a dive to get the other there was no video at the sabres coudln t get started ryan mcgill poked at the puck just after a sabre carried into the flyers zone and after a bunch of people poked at it dineen emerged with it and headed the other way it started out a on but brind amour hustled ahead to make it a on and back off the defenseman dineen let it rip from the top of the right circle to make it flyers at that was all for fuhr john muckler sent in dominik hasek to take over but the sabres still had lots of power play time again they took some time to just get into the flyers zone and when they finally did the flyers were all over them boos began to ring through the building but they finally got through soderstrom on an ugly goal smehlik took a shot from the top of the zone that missed and kicked out to hawerchuk in the slot hawerchuk tried a backhander as he skated towards the goal line to the right as galley dove down to block it mistake he should have let soderstrom handle the backhander and worried about a the rebound or b barnaby who was camped behind the goal line right next to the net well the rebound dropped right next to soderstrom and mistake galley just laid there and watched barnaby get three hacks at the puck before he finally pushed it through the goalie he didn t even swing his stick out to try and knock the puck away with the goal at two streaks end for the flyers of shutout hockey and straight penalty kills lindros put them right back on the power play at with a high sticking minor i think it was barnaby again this time the sabres were able to get set up quickly but couldn t get too much quality on goal the sabres continued to keep the puck in the flyers end for a while after the power play ended things evetually settled down but then the other very bad penalty mcgill allowed barnaby to get under his skin and slashed his stick just before a faceoff the gloves were dropped and mcgill started pounding the crap out of him but during the fight he gave barnaby a head butt with his helmet and that meant a match penalty for slashing fighting and for the major minutes of power play time for the sabres at barnaby only got the flyers were keeping them at bay for a while but there was only so long they could do that after a couple of good sabre chances audette handed to ledyard at the point and ledyard sent a drive that was knocked down by soderstrom lafontaine whacked at the bouncing puck from the left side of the net and knocked it over to randy wood at the right soderstrom had moved over to play lafontaine and since yushkevich and carkner were waving at the puck instead of picking up men wood just slid it into the empty net at to close the flyers lead to lafontaine was actually trying to put it on net but half fanned on it and got a break the flyers then got some shorthanded pressure in the sabres zone but hasek was strong finally it was keith carney passing ahead to hawerchuk into the neutral zone and hawerchuk sent a good backhand pass to mogilny at the flyers blue line another mini breakaway for mogilny he elected to shoot from the left circle and he threaded the needle to get it just inside the far post at for his th of the season ironically the youth hockey tip between the st and second period was tommy soderstrom talking about cutting off angles that was all in the nd shots were sabres into the rd period and pelle eklund blew a golden opportunity to get the flyers the lead back a on acton with the puck he dropped to eklund in the slot and eklund held the puck as he slid through the left circle until he had almost no angle at all to shoot from when he finally did shoot he hit the far post that was still during the carryover power play time than an incredible almost goal randy wood skated around recchi and hawgood untouched into soderstrom soderstrom goes down wood pokes the puck under soderstrom and a black object hits the back of the net red light comes on horn sounds crowd cheers but up to the video replay booth for some strange reason and in the meantime emrick and dornhoefer try to figure out what they could be reviewing well it turns out that it was the taped up stick blade that went into the net not the puck emrick mentions that one of the criteria for scoring a goal is that the puck must go into the net dave hannan then took out recchi and got a holding minor at the flyers could not get anything going at all they finally got set up way through but were kept on the perimeter as time ran out beranek stripped the puck from a sabre in the offensive zone along the right boards and passed it across to eklund at the top of the left circle eklund saw dineen heading at the net just inside the right circle and passed through to him dineen fumbled the pass but twice directed it at hasek and eklund swooped in and chipped the bouncing puck over the goalie for his th at flyers but the sabres came right back lafontaine picked up the puck in his offensive left corner and slid it to bob erry behind the flyers net erry started to skate out but then just dropped the puck back to nobody behind the net mogilny flew in skated around and stuffed it through soderstrom s hole for his th at to tie the game at then hawerchuk took a retaliatory roughing penalty at the flyers set up in the sabres zone and stayed there off a faceoff high in the sabres zone in the middle while brind amour wrestled for the puck dineen snuck through the line and wristed a perfect shot low to hasek s glove side at play started to go back and forth until hawgood took a roughing penalty at the flyers dumped the puck into the sabres zone brind amour and ledyard went after it and rod got the puck he backed away from the right boards skated to the right faceoff dot and passed between his legs to dineen crashing through the slot all by himself dineen waited patiently and lifted it over the blocker of hasek for a flyers lead at rd hat trick of the season for dineen th of his career nd shorthanded goal of the game for him th of the season then carney took a tripping penalty at to kill the rest of the sabres power play not much action on the on and the sabres got most of the chances on the flyers resulting power play play went end to end for quite a while after that and both goalies had to make some big saves the sabres weren t able to pull hasek as time was running out as the flyers wouldn t allow any consistant possession for the sabres finally as time was running out ken sutton misplayed the puck in his own left corner and brind amour stripped it away from him he pulled away and found dineen on the other side of the left circle and dineen found acton at the right of hasek he slid the puck between two sabres defenders and acton chipped it back to the far side of hasek for his th of the season at on his th birthday that was all the scoring shots were buffalo and the ice was showered with plastic drinking mugs handed out before the game so another strong game from tommy soderstrom who hadn t been tested much in his last couple of starts kevin dineen has a career high point night unless he had a better night earlier in the season but i don t think so the flyers longest winning streak in years goals for only against with three shutouts eric lindros is th in league with even strength goals despite missing games with injury points out of th clinched th place since the rangers lose the tie breaker a couple misc notes forget the mike keenan rumors there will be a press conference tommorrow to announce that he will be head coach of the new york rangers next year in the last notes i mentioned that garry galley won the barry ashbee award but i failed to mention that the award is for the best defenseman the times of trenton has reported that a preeminent specialist from oklahoma has looked over tommy soderstrom s medical record and determined that no further tests are necessary in the near future same paper had a blurb about bill dineen being asked about whether or not he expected to be back next year his response was that he wants to come back he feels he did a good job this year but that he would cheerfully accept a role scouting if farwell didn t want him back flyers team record watch eric lindros goals assists points rookie records club record goals club record points eric lindros dave poulin brian propp brian propp ron flockhart eric lindros dave poulin ron flockhart bill barber pelle eklund mark recchi goals assists points club record goals club record points reggie leach mark recchi tim kerr bobby clarke tim kerr bobby clarke mark recchi bill barber rick macliesh bobby clarke bill barber rick macliesh reggie leach more than games flyers career years player points best prior season mark recchi penguins rod brind amour flyers garry galley kings brent fedyk red wings that s all for now pete clark jr rsh flyers contact and mailing list owner
