Bruins Tie Flyers

Mike Knuble scored midway through the third period and Byron Dafoe made 20 saves in his second game back from an injury layoff Tuesday night, lifting the Boston Bruins to a 4-4 tie with the Flyers.

"They looked like the fresher team," said Barber, who is 2-0-3 since he took over after Craig Ramsay was fired on Dec. 10. "We`ll take the point. It was a big one for us on the road."

Former Boston forward Rick Tocchet gave the Flyers a 4-3 lead, their first of the game, with 11:57 remaining in the third period when he poked a loose puck past Dafoe for his fifth goal of the season.

But Boston tied it at 4 when Knuble slipped a rebound past Philadelphia goalie Brian Boucher on the short side.

Philadelphia moved into a first-place tie with New Jersey in the Atlantic Division with 35 points.

Dafoe (2-4-3) was out for three weeks, missing 11 contests with a knee injury. The Bruins haven`t put together consecutive victories since Mike Keenan took over on Oct. 25.

"It was an up-and-down game for us," Boston forward Bill Guerin said. "There were a lot of momentum swings, but no matter what we stayed with it. I thought we played well."

Hal Gill`s first goal of the season gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead just 1:43 into the game. His wrist shot from inside the left point sneaked in the corner of the net past Boucher.

Boston went ahead 2-0 on Guerin`s 21st goal, a one-timer from in front of the net that came less than one minute after Gill`s tally.

"They came at us hard and I don`t think we matched their intensity from the start," Boucher said. "We battled through it and I guess the point`s not so bad with the way we started."

The Flyers cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:37 of the first when Simon Gagne converted a rebound of an Eric Desjardins` shot past Dafoe into an open net. It was Gagne`s fourth goal in three games.

Ruslan Fedotenko tied it at 2 on another rebound, this time off a Mark Recchi shot, with 5:27 remaining in the first.

"It would have been nice to get the win, but they got some lucky goals tonight," Dafoe said. "The first two goals bounced right in front of the net and they had lucky rebounds."

Jason Allison gave Boston a 3-2 advantage with 14 seconds left in the first. He stole the puck from defenseman Chris Therien from behind the net and slipped it past Boucher for his 17th of the season.

The Flyers made it 3-3 when Justin Williams slipped the puck under Dafoe`s stick with 6:43 left in the second.

Boucher (6-6-5) stopped 27 shots.

Notes:
Boston C Joe Thornton served the first of a two-game suspension for cross-checking Carolina D Dave Karpa on Saturday. ... Philadelphia LW John LeClair missed his fifth straight game with back spasms and still hasn`t played a game under Barber. ... Bruins D Kyle McLaren returned to the ice after missing 24 games with a knee injury. It was his first game under Mike Keenan. ... Barber was an assistant coach in 1985-86 when Keenan was the head coach of the Flyers.

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: AP