Flyers Stay Hot; Beat Kings

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Philadelphia Flyers picked up where they left off at the All-Star break -- only they found another scorer.

Eric Weinrich ended a 43-game goal drought and set up Ruslan Fedotenko's short-handed tally as the Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 Monday night.

"I know I'm not out there to score, so if I get one, I'm happy," Weinrich said. "A blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes. You just put your head down and shoot it. It was a lucky goal."

Simon Gagne also scored, helping the Eastern Conference-leading Flyers improve to 32-14-6-2. They lead the league with a 17-8-3 road mark.

Philadelphia is 11-3-1 in 15 games despite going 1-for-26 on the power play the last nine contests.

"We've got to get our power play going," general manager Bobby Clarke said. "We have enough ability, so we should be able to do that. But we're like everybody -- we've got some strengths and some weaknesses.

"We're a long ways from the playoffs to start thinking about the Stanley Cup. We've just got to stay consistent, work hard and stay injury-free."

Adam Deadmarsh scored a power-play goal for the Kings, who were coming off their most successful month ever at 12-3.

"We knew coming in that they were a team that was playing as well as we have the last couple of months, so we wanted to make sure that we stayed with what's brought us our success," Flyers center Keith Primeau said.

"We gave a solid effort, forechecked their defensemen hard and didn't give them a whole lot of time to reach the offensive zone, where they're dangerous," he added.

In the only meeting this season between the teams, Fedotenko opened the scoring 6:43 in with his first short-handed goal in 128 NHL games. He tipped in Weinrich's slap shot from the left point while Gagne was off for hooking.

Los Angeles tied it at 4:39 of the second period on Deadmarsh's 17th goal, a wrist shot that beat Roman Cechmanek while Philadelphia's Kim Johnsson served a holding penalty.

But the Flyers regained the lead just 50 seconds later. Jeremy Roenick took a shot from a sharp angle that was headed for the far corner of the net, and Felix Potvin kicked out with his right skate. But the rebound caromed to Weinrich, who scored from the top of the left circle for his first goal since Oct. 20.

Gagne added his team-high 22nd goal on a breakaway with 1:03 remaining after intercepting a pass by Kings defenseman Philippe Boucher.

Cechmanek, who entered with a league-best 1.87 goals-against average on the road, finished with 20 saves in the victory.

The Flyers, who did not allow the Kings to record a shot during the first nine minutes, blanked an opponent in the opening period for the sixth straight game.

The closest the Kings came to scoring in the period was when Bryan Smolinski's 20-foot wrist shot hit the right post less than 4 1/2 minutes in.

"I think we missed the net 10 times with shots in the first two periods," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "We should have been looking to put more pucks at the net. To beat them, you have to be on top of your game _ and I don't think we were."

Game notes Roenick, one of seven Flyers who will play in the Olympics, believes this year's playoffs will truly be a survival of the fittest because of the compressed schedule. "It's by far the toughest year I've had in 14 years in the National Hockey League," said Roenick, who played in his seventh All-Star Game on Saturday. "Before the All-Star break, we played 14 games in 25 nights. And to me, that's crazy. It's taken a beating out of my body." ... Bill Barber, last season's NHL coach of the year with the Flyers, is the only coach in the 24-year history of the Jack Adams Trophy to win it after taking over during the season. ... It was the first time in seven games the Flyers blanked an opponent in the third period. ... The Kings recalled C Adam Mair from Manchester of the AHL. ... Los Angeles captain Mattias Norstrom played in his 500th NHL game. ... Flyers C Jiri Dopita missed his third straight game because of a neck strain.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: 6 ABC - AP