Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Jeff Carter and Mike Richards both
finished with two goals and an assist, propelling the Philadelphia Flyers to a
6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Scott Hartnell added a goal and two assists for the Flyers, who recorded their
second consecutive six-goal performance. They beat Carolina, 6-1, on Saturday.
James van Riemsdyk added three assists in the win, while Ray Emery made 26
saves.
Mike Smith got the start in net for the Lightning and allowed five goals on 18
shots through nearly 27 minutes of play. Former Flyer Antero Niittymaki made
12 saves the rest of the way.
Jeff Halpern and Steven Stamkos had the goals for Tampa Bay, which has dropped
five of its last seven.
"Sometimes you just have bad games and you just chalk it up," Lightning head
coach Rick Tocchet. "We had a bad game against New Jersey [Saturday, losing in
a shootout] and I thought they would answer the bell here against the Flyers
but, they leaned on their sticks and it seemed like they won every battle. It
was kind of frustrating watching it. You were hoping for somebody to get
things going, get us woken up but we didn't wake up."
The Flyers got on the board 8:29 into the game on Richards' seventh goal of
the year, then made it a 2-0 game with 44.7 seconds left in the opening
period.
With Philadelphia on the power play, Hartnell managed to sneak the puck in by
the left post.
Then, 3:20 into the second period Carter snapped a seven-game goalless drought
with his fifth score of the season. Van Riemsdyk skated behind the net with
the puck and sent a pass to the low left circle for Carter, whose shot beat
Smith to make it a 3-0 game.
Tampa Bay got the goal back just under two minutes later, as Stamkos
intercepted a clearing pass, set up in the right circle and wristed a shot
past Emery at 5:18.
But the Flyers turned the momentum around almost immediately, posting a pair
of goals 35 seconds apart. David Laliberte got his second of the season just
1:06 after Stamkos' score, and Richards' backhander made it a 5-1 game at
6:59.
"It's great to see Laliberte and van Riemsdyk and guys like that take
advantage of the extra ice time and use this as an opportunity," Flyers head
coach John Stevens said.
That was the end of Smith's night, as Niittymaki entered and kept the Flyers
off the scoreboard for the rest of the period.
Carter, though, struck again for the Flyers' second power-play score. With
Philadelphia pressuring the net, Niittymaki made several saves but couldn't
control the puck. Carter came crashing in and whacked the bouncing puck across
the goal line at 8:56.
Halpern got the final goal of the contest with 5:03 remaining.