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Knuble leads Flyers to wild win over Penguins

Jan 25, 2008 - 4:39 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia Flyers did not let a tough loss linger and now they find themselves atop the Atlantic Division.

Mike Knuble scored the decisive goal in a wild third period to lead the Flyers to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.

R.J. Umberger had a goal and two assists for Philadelphia, which has outscored Pittsburgh, 20-8, in winning all four meetings this season against its division rival.

Knuble scored the game-winning goal off an assist from Jeff Carter to help the Flyers rebound from a disappointing 7-3 loss to New Jersey on Tuesday.

"We've done a pretty good job of bouncing back from adversity," captain Jason Smith said. "I think we have a great bunch of guys in this room with a lot of character. This is what we need to do every night."

At this time last year, Philadelphia was struggling through its worst season in franchise history. Now, the Flyers (27-16-5, 59 points) are tied for first place in the Atlantic with the New Jersey Devils (28-18-3, 59 points), who lost to Montreal on Thursday.

"It's like a playoff game every night," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said of the Atlantic Division games. "It's an old cliche that they are four-point games, but they really are."

"It's fun to play against these teams," Flyers left wing Scott Hartnell said. "We all get up for these games. Everyone is doing a great job collectively. We're fighting together, playing together, and it's awesome to see."

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh entered having won 10 of 13, but has now lost two of three without All-Star center Sidney Crosby, who is out six to eight weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered on Friday.

Less than a minute after defenseman Jim Vandermeer gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead with a power-play tally, Pittsburgh tied the game with a controversial shorthanded tally.

A scramble occurred in front of the net and Penguins center Jordan Staal fell into the crease, pushing the net off its moorings. Ryan Whitney then grabbed a rebound on the right side and fired a shot that went under the lifted net.

After video review, it was ruled a goal just 4:51 into the third.

Just 34 seconds later, Carter and Knuble rendered that ruling irrelevant. Carter raced down the left side and sent a backhand shot toward the net, where Knuble batted home the rebound past goaltender Ty Conklin for the decisive tally.

"It was kind of just a pass in the middle, and it just went off bodies," Conklin said. "It was just sitting at my feet and he (Knuble) took a couple of whacks at it. I just lost sight of it."

The Flyers broke a 1-1 tie in the late in the second period. Defenseman Randy Jones took a feed from Hartnell and fired a shot over Conklin's glove with 7:01 left in the second.

However, Pittsburgh got even as Petr Sykora tipped a shot from All-Star blue-liner Sergei Gonchar between Martin Biron's pads with 2:06 remaining in the period.

"This was a game we really needed and wanted to win," Sykora said. "We fought hard but it just wasn't to be tonight."

After Umberger opened the scoring at 9:34 of the first, Crosby's All-Star Game replacement, Evgeni Malkin, scored his 27th goal to tie it with 3:33 left in the period.

"I'm very happy with the way Evgeni is playing right now," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said. "With Sid out he has really done well for us."

Biron stopped 21 shots, while Conklin stopped 29 for Pittsburgh.