Flyers storm back to shock Bruins with OT victory
LAST NIGHT IN THE NHL Pitkanen leads Philly with pair Habs hand Bolts 4th straight loss
Joni Pitkanen scored the tying goal with 23.4 seconds left and added the winner 1: 55 into overtime to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins. The Flyers won their fourth straight game and seventh in a row at home, overcoming a twogoal deficit in the final 3: 35 of regulation on goals by Pitkanen and Simon Gagne.
“ I lost the puck to make it 3- 1. After that, I felt real bad,’’ said Pitkanen, whose turnover in the neutral zone led to an unassisted goal by Joe Thornton in the third period. “ I had good luck.’’
Sergei Samsonov and Shawn McEachern also scored for Boston, who haven’t lost in regulation in nine games since Oct. 20. With goalie Robert Esche on the bench and an extra skater on the ice, Pitkanen took a long pass from Peter Forsberg, streaked down the left side and wristed a shot into the far corner to tie it 3- 3.
In overtime, Pitkanen took a pass from behind the net and tucked it past goalie Hannu Toivonen to win it. Mike Knuble also scored for Philadelphia, which played without captain Keith Primeau and top defenceman Eric Desjardins. Both players have been sidelined by concussions. ISLANDERS at DEVILS: Rick DiPietro made 25 saves and Shawn Bates had a goal and an assist to help the New York Islanders end a two-game losing streak with a 4- 1 win over New Jersey. Mattias Weinhandl, Oleg Kvasha and Jason Blake also scored for the Islanders.
Vladimir Malakhov scored for the Devils, who dropped their fourth straight. The Islanders took a 2- 0 firstperiod lead on goals by Weinhandl and Bates. Weinhandl deflected Brad Lukowich’s point shot past Scott Clemmensen at 2: 57.
Bates scored from a difficult angle at 11: 35. Bates took a shot from the right boards as he drove toward the goal line and the puck slipped past Clemmensen. In the second, Malakhov scored on a 5- on- 3 advantage at 7: 11 to cut it to 2- 1. LIGHTNING at HABS:
Craig Rivet and Richard Zednik scored in the third period as the surging Montreal Canadiens won 3- 2 to hand the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning their fourth straight loss.
Andrei Markov also scored for Montreal (12-3- 1), which has won five games in a row, before the Canadiens’ ninth straight sellout crowd of 21, 273 this season. Tim Taylor and Vaclav Prospal scored for Tampa Bay ( 7- 7- 2), which outshot Montreal 34- 19 but ran up against goaltender Jose Theodore at the top of his form.
Lightning coach John Tortorella shook up his lineup, making 42- year-old captain Dave Andreychuk a healthy scratch and giving Brian Eklund his first NHL start in goal.