Flyers Down Blues

Paul Ranheim, Marty Murray and Kent Manderville didn't have to appear on the score sheet to make their presence felt.

The trio helped Philadelphia kill eight penalties, and Chris Therien's short-handed goal midway through the third period snapped a tie, lifting the Flyers to a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night. St. Louis, which had two, two-man advantages that totaled 2:07, scored on four of their previous nine power plays.

"We did a good job of pressuring them," Ranheim said. "Something we have changed from last year is that we are trying to force the other team up the ice and not give them a chance to fully set up."

The Flyers had lost two straight and five of seven at home. St. Louis had just one regulation loss in 10 games.

Therien's goal came just after Philadelphia killed a 94-second, two-man disadvantage. With eight seconds remaining on a high-sticking penalty on Ruslan Fedotenko, Simon Gagne broke in, took a pass from Jeremy Roenick and backhanded a shot that was stopped by Brent Johnson.

But the rebound went right to Therien, who lifted it over a sprawled Johnson for his first goal of the season and first career shorthanded.

"It was a gift," Therien said. "I knew one of the guys was coming out, saw the play was going to the net and followed it. I just got lucky."

Mark Recchi's 400th NHL goal made it 5-3 with 1:26 left. Fedotenko scored into an empty net.

"You have to overplay (Al) MacInnis somewhat, and then they have (Chris) Pronger on the other side," Murray said about the penalty-killing strategy. "We tried to keep them from getting set up, and we did a good job of it."

Pronger said the problem was making too many passes.

"We were trying to make pretty passes when you've got to weave it through three sticks to get it on somebody's tape as opposed to throwing it on net and crashing," he said. "

The Blues scored two goals in a span of 2:09 in the second period to take a 3-2 lead. The Flyers tied it at 3 on Kim Johnsson's power-play goal midway through the period.

Three seconds after failing on a power play, St. Louis tied it at 2 on Scott Young's ninth goal at 5:40 of the second. Bryce Salvador gave the Blues a 3-2 lead with his first goal in 61 games.

Flyers goalie Roman Cechmanek made 30 saves, including a terrific stop on a breakaway by Keith Tkachuk that preserved a 3-3 tie early in the third.

Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead on a disputed goal by Roenick midway through the first period. Roenick poked the puck past Johnson's glove, but the goal was reviewed and initially disallowed.

However, during a television timeout, technicians digitally enhanced the image, showing the puck clearly crossed the line.

Mike Murphy, the NHL's vice president of hockey operations, said in a statement that there is no rule governing replays involving video enhancement.

"Whatever picture we can get that can reinforce that the puck went in the net, we will use," Murphy said.

Notes:
Flyers LW Donald Brashear, acquired Monday from Vancouver for forward Jan Hlavac, was scratched because all of his equipment didn't arrive in Philadelphia in time. ... The Blues are 1-6-3-1 in their last 11 road games. ... The 12 power-play goals allowed by the Flyers are the fewest in the NHL.

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

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News