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Steen, O'Neill lead Maple Leafs past Flyers

Feb 25, 2007 - 5:21 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- As Mats Sundin inched closer to the franchise mark for goals, Alex Steen and Jeff O'Neill helped keep the Toronto Maple Leafs close to a playoff spot.

Sundin scored his 387th goal as a Maple Leaf and Steen and O'Neill each had a tally and an assist as Toronto rolled to a 5-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers.

The victory gave Toronto 69 points, one behind Montreal and the New York Islanders, who are tied for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

Entering three goals shy of matching Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler's team record, Sundin scored his 26th of the season midway through the third period to give the Maple Leafs a 4-1 lead. It was the 522nd career tally for the captain, who tied Pat Verbeek for 29th on the NHL's all-time list.

But the combination of Steen and O'Neill set things in motion for Toronto, which had lost its previous two games. Steen opened the scoring with his first goal in eight games with 8:44 left in the first period and O'Neill made it 2-0 with just over seven minutes to go in the middle session with his 20th of the season.

"I think that we are skating a lot more as a line than the past few games," Steen said. "We got off to a good start tonight. All three lines were rolling. We got contributions from all the lines, and that was a big positive tonight."

Each player assisted on the other's tally.

Chad Kilger and John Pohl also scored, defenseman Bryan McCabe collected three assists and Andrew Raycroft made 22 saves in his 23rd consecutive start for the Maple Leafs, who have won five straight meetings with the Flyers, including all three this season.

Sami Kapanen and Simon Gagne tallied for Philadelphia, which has dropped four in a row.

"I can't put a finger on what is missing," Flyers left wing Kyle Calder said. "Toronto had a couple of goals early and we just couldn't get going. I can't really say what the problem was tonight. It just wasn't a good game at all."

Losers of their previous two games, the Maple Leafs got on the scoreboard when Steen converted a cross-slot pass from O'Neill at the bottom of the left faceoff circle. The play developed when Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher got caught out of position high in his own zone.

"We came out and I thought we were ready to go," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "I think we just didn't manage the puck very well. The problem is that we turned the puck over too much."

O'Neill doubled the lead at 12:57 of the second period, tapping the rebound of Steen's shot from the top of the left circle by goaltender Michael Leighton. The tally gave O'Neill 20 goals for the fifth time in his 11-year career.

"For me and Matty (Stajan), it has been mostly about trying to find (O'Neill)," Steen said. "Tonight, he got one of those goals off a rebound, and he scored on that nicely."

"He's an interesting player because when he gets a little bit of confidence and feels like he accomplished something, he can get hot," Toronto coach Paul Maurice said of O'Neill. "That's just what we need from him."

Philadelphia blue-liner Randy Jones fell in the neutral zone late in the session, giving Kilger a breakaway, which he converted for his 10th goal with exactly two minutes left. But the Flyers answered 46 seconds later, when Kapanen blasted a shot past Raycroft for his second goal in three games.

Sundin restored Toronto's three-goal bulge at 8:41 of the third. After his deflection of defenseman Andy Wozniewski's shot was stopped, the Swede knocked in his own rebound for a 4-1 advantage.

Pohl scored on a one-timer with 70 seconds remaining to cap the scoring for the Maple Leafs, while Gagne netted his 34th of the season 28 seconds later for the Flyers. Defenseman Alexei Zhitnik recorded an assist on the goal but was traded to Atlanta after the game.

Leighton made 25 saves but fell to 2-2-0 for Philadelphia, with both losses coming against Toronto.

"I had two wins in my first two games, and then things haven't gone so well in the two games against Toronto," Leighton said. "I was looking at the schedule and this was a game I wanted to play. This was just another tough one for me."

Stevens did not place all the blame on his netminder but did believe Leighton was shaky.

"You have to control the rebounds and somebody needs to be there to clear them away," Stevens said. "Some of those pucks ended up in our net from turnover situations. They have some veteran defensemen that can turn the puck up in a hurry."