Flyers Down Bruins

Once the Philadelphia Flyers got past some more power-play troubles, they made things look easy. Paul Ranheim, Ruslan Fedotenko and Jeremy Roenick scored second-period goals as the Flyers coasted to a 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. John LeClair even joined in the fun, scoring his first goal since Nov. 20. He ended a nine-game drought, the longest of his career. "It could have been a lot worse," Flyers left wing Simon Gagne said. "We gave up a short-handed goal in the first period. We had a lot of jump from our team to comeback from that."

The Bruins went ahead 1-0 on Brian Rolston's short-handed score at 7:08 of the first after Kyle McLaren stole the puck from Mark Recchi at the blue line, setting up a two-man breakaway. Rolston tucked a backhander behind goalie Brian Boucher.

Then the Flyers took over.

Mark Recchi scored the Flyers' first goal 7:21 later, and Philadelphia broke it open despite ongoing struggles on the power play.

The Flyers went 0-for-4 with the man-advantage and are just 5-for-62 on the road.

"They worked harder than we did," Boston coach Robbie Ftorek said. "It appeared they wanted the game more than we did."

With the score tied at 1, Ranheim came streaking down the center and redirected Fedotenko's pass between Byron Dafoe's pads 10:19 into the second.

Fedotenko, positioned in front, tipped in Gagne's shot to make it 3-1 just 3:41 later.

With 14 seconds left in the second, Roenick backhanded the puck over Dafoe's right shoulder out of a scramble.

Philadelphia had numerous scoring chances in the second, and without some spectacular saves from Dafoe it could have been a lot worse.

"I don't know why, but we just didn't have it for some reason," Dafoe said. "You give up three goals in a period to a team like that and it puts you behind the 8-ball and it's tough."

LeClair scored after being sent in alone by Recchi midway into the third to make it 5-1.

"One goal is definitely going to help, but I've still got a long way to go," LeClair said.

Boucher, making his first start since injuring his hamstring Nov. 15, stopped 32 shots.

The Bruins, who entered the game with the most home points in the Eastern Conference this season, lost for just the fourth time in 18 games at the FleetCenter.

"We just didn't do the little things that have made us successful," Rolston said.

The Flyers rebounded from a tough 3-2 loss at home to Montreal Thursday.

"Our guys were focused to play," Flyers coach Bill Barber said. "We came out strong and stayed with it."

Recchi scored off the rebound of Jiri Dopita's shot in the first period.

Don Sweeney had his first of the season for the Bruins with 8:58 left in the game.

Notes:
Philadelphia's power play isn't much better at home, going just 9-of-61. Two of Boston's top scorers, Bill Guerin and Sergei Samsonov, were sidelined. Guerin was a late scratch with a charley horse. Samsonov missed his fifth consecutive game with a left knee strain. ... The Bruins have killed 19 straight short-handed opportunities. They opened the season by holding their opponents scoreless in the first 32.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News