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Richards, Flyers remain hot with victory over Senators

Nov 16, 2010 - 3:54 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Mike Richards notched a pair of goals and totaled three points as Philadelphia remained hot with a 5-1 decision over Ottawa.

Claude Giroux added a goal and two helpers for the Flyers, who have taken seven straight games at home and nine of their last 10 overall.

Danny Briere and Darroll Powe also tallied to back a 28-save performance from Sergei Bobrovsky.

"Confidence is a big thing, it seems we're building chemistry, we're feeling better and better with each other," Briere said when asked what the key was to the club's recent success. "It's been a lot of fun, I know it's not going to last the whole season but we'll try to take advantage of it while it's going and while guys are feeling hot with their stick."

Jason Spezza had the lone goal for the Senators, who have dropped two of three since winning four in a row. Brian Elliott, who twice shut out Philadelphia and won all of his three starts against the Flyers last season, was torched for five goals on 46 shots in the loss.

The Flyers' captain was instrumental in turning a one-goal lead into the deciding four-goal margin.

Despite fanning on his centering feed, Richards' pass from the right circle into the slot was quickly whipped into the net by Giroux for a power-play goal and 3-1 Philly lead with 1:29 left in the second.

On a Senators power play, Richards took the puck away from Sergei Gonchar at the point and raced the length of the ice before beating Elliott with a backhander under the crossbar for a 4-1 Flyers edge at 6:13 of the third period.

He then followed up a broken play 90 seconds later and beat a prone Elliott from a sharp angle along the goal line to the right of the Ottawa net to give the home team a four-goal edge.

"We are starting to get a lot of the bounces. In the beginning of the year, there was a lot of posts and pucks just seemed to be slipping off sticks," Richards said about the Flyers' changing luck. "You are going to have that in a year, where you can't seem to find a balance then you have stretches where pucks just end up on the sticks so that's a big part in it."

The Flyers opened the scoring at the 8:43 mark of the opening period, when Briere was alone in front to tip home an Andrej Meszaros point blast.

Ottawa responded at 10:40, when Spezza managed to get a rolling puck past Bobrovsky from the right circle, but the home team moved ahead a little over a minute later when Kimmo Timonen's left-point shot was tipped in by Powe.

"The power play goal was the killer. You know, any of the energy that we created early in the period and late in the first had just seemed to go away when we took four straight penalties," said Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston. "Whether they are all penalties or not, everyone has their own opinion. We thought there could've been a couple calls, at least somewhere in between there, to break up some of their momentum and give us a little bit."

Game Notes

The Flyers have now gone 10 games without a regulation loss, their longest streak since an 11-game stretch (9-0-2) from December 17, 2005-January 6, 2006...Philadelphia improved to 11-0 this season when leading after two periods...Richards' assist on Giroux's goal was his 300th NHL point. Coupled with his two-goal game on Saturday, it marked the second time in his career he registered back-to-back multi-goal contests. The first occurrence was November 29-December 2, 2008...Flyers forward Dan Carcillo suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return...Alex Kovalev's assist on Spezza's goal gave him 999 career points.