Flyers Pay Heavy Price For a Tie

Alexei Yashin scored late in the third period to lift the Ottawa Senators to a 3-3 tie with the Flyers on Monday night, and Primeau will be sidelined for at least a week with a sprained left knee.

Primeau, Philadelphia`s second-leading scorer, was injured after a hit by Chris Phillips in the third period. He was to be re-evaluated Tuesday after an MRI.

"I could feel the swelling immediately," Primeau said. "He was just trying to keep me from going to the net. I caught a rut and I got pushed. At that point, I just let go."

With the tie, Ottawa reached the 100-point mark for just the second time in team history and moved one point ahead of the idle New Jersey Devils for first place in the Eastern Conference.

Daniel Alfredsson and rookie Karel Rachunek each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, which is 3-0-1 in its last four, and 5-1-1 in its last seven.

"We played a very good hockey game tonight," Yashin said. "It`s not like we expected to win. The game was a tie (but) we played a great hockey game."

Justin Williams, Kent Manderville and Paul Ranheim scored for Philadelphia, which snapped its two-game losing streak and moved within six points of the Devils for first place in the Atlantic Division.

Sami Salo, one of Ottawa`s special teams leaders, was caught in the mouth with a high stick from Philadelphia`s Rick Tocchet in the opening minutes. Tocchet picked up a double minor on the play.

Salo returned, but later left with a mild concussion and is listed as day-to-day. Ottawa already is without center Radek Bonk, who broke his left thumb Saturday. He had surgery to insert a pin Monday and is out a minimum of three weeks.

After a scramble in front of Flyers goaltender Roman Cechmanek, Yashin banged in a loose puck for his 35th goal of the season with 6:59 remaining before a soldout crowd of 18,500 at Corel Centre.

Patrick Lalime stopped 30 shots for the Senators, who failed to break franchise records for both wins (44) and home wins (24) in a season.

"They played best in the first, the second was probably even. We played best in the third," said Alfredsson, who also had an assist. "This was a good test for us. We battled hard to come back in the third."

The tie also prevented the Flyers from losing three straight games for the first time since Bill Barber took over as coach Dec. 10.

"It`s a good effort, a better effort than we`ve had in our last two games," Mark Recchi said.

"Overall, I liked the way our team played tonight," Barber said. "A few mistakes cost us a point tonight."

With the Senators on a four-minute power play, Manderville opened the scoring when he picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated in on Lalime and fired a shot that appeared to bounce back out off the back bar. Play continued for more than three minutes until the next whistle, when the sequence was reviewed and ruled a goal.

The lead held until the second when goals by Alfredsson and Rachunek made it 2-1. Ranheim tied it 2-2 at 14:05.

At 3:19 of the third, Williams took advantage of a turnover by Senators defenseman Jason York at the Flyers` blue line and scored his 12th goal of the season on the ensuing 2-on-1 break with a shot over Lalime`s shoulder.

Notes: Flyers center Keith Primeau left with a sprained left knee in the third period. His status was not known. ... The Senators recalled center Todd White from Grand Rapids of the IHL to replace Bonk in the lineup. ... Philadelphia defenseman Chris Therien played in his 500th NHL game.

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News (AP)