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Carter nets second of game in OT as Flyers edge Islanders

Oct 31, 2008 - 4:42 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Jeff Carter is off to a fast start this season, much to the delight of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Carter scored his second goal of the game with 23 seconds remaining in overtime, giving the Flyers a 3-2 triumph over the New York Islanders on Thursday.

Mike Knuble extended his goal-scoring streak to four games and Martin Biron made 34 saves for the Flyers, who have won four in a row. However, Philadelphia coach John Stevens was not very pleased with his team's effort.

"We had three good games in a row, and maybe complacency sets in, I don't know," Stevens said. "We certainly took the steps to try and avoid that, but when you win a hockey game like this, you're really going to try and take a hard lesson from it because you feel fortunate. I thought Marty was the reason we won the hockey game tonight."

Captain Bill Guerin and Andy Hilbert tallied for New York, which has dropped five straight and fell to 0-7-0 when trailing after two periods.

"The body of work is done over 60 minutes, that is what's important," Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. "If we are doing what we are doing for 60 minutes, we will have success. ... From the second period on, we started to get back to the things that we had to do that would make us successful. One was shooting the puck, and the second, exerting ourselves on the forecheck."

With Philadelphia on a power play in the extra session, captain Mike Richards made a cross-slot pass from the outer edge of the right faceoff circle that went off the stick of defenseman Bruno Gervais and right to Carter, who fired the puck past goaltender Joey MacDonald from the left side of the net for his eighth goal of the season.

"I knew that (MacDonald) was sliding over, and I don't think that there was anywhere he could go on a play like that," Carter said.

"The puck went off the stick, and when they threw it across, it went off another stick right to Carter," MacDonald said. "He made a great shot. On a 4-on-3, it's tough on everybody because they can move the puck pretty well, and they did."

Gordon was not ready to blame Frans Nielsen, whose holding penalty gave the Flyers the decisive power play.

"In fairness to Frans, the guy actually grabbed Frans' arm there when he was going for the puck," Gordon said. "My initial reaction was, it was a bad penalty. But if the guy is going to grab your arm, I can't say (Nielsen) did anything wrong for going for it. He was trying to get the stick on the puck. It was a good forecheck, and their defenseman reached around and grabbed his arm."

The 11th overall pick of the 2003 draft, Carter netted a career-high 29 tallies last season. The 23-year-old scored his fifth in six games with 4:31 remaining in the first period, redirecting defenseman Ossi Vaananen's one-timer from the right point by MacDonald to snap a 1-1 tie.

"I'm just shooting the puck as soon as I see the net," Carter said. "I've been finding some posts, that's really it. I usually have slow starts, so it's nice this year to start hot and do well.

"My dad always told me, 'You can't score if you don't shoot.' In this league, the goalies are so good that you have to throw everything (at them) and maybe sometimes catch them off-guard or hit a leg and (the puck) will go in. You try to get a couple of bounces to go your way. I just try to do that every game."

Stevens has been impressed with Carter's play this season, and not just his offensive outburst.

"I see him being one of the better two-way players in the league," Stevens said. "I don't know if he's ready to compete for a Selke Trophy, but I see him heading in a direction where he can play against top lines and still contribute offense. he got out of the gate, he scored early and he's got confidence.

"He has earned the right to be in the situations he was in tonight. To his credit, he takes advantage of those opportunities and then produces."

Knuble opened the scoring at 7:45 of the first, when he received a pass from along the right wing boards by Simon Gagne and one-timed it past MacDonald from the top of the slot for his fifth of the season. All five tallies have come during Knuble's current streak.

The Islanders knotted the contest midway through the session. During a 4-on-3 power play, Guerin unleashed a one-timer from above the slot that beat Biron to the stick side at 10:17.

Following a scoreless second period, Hilbert drew New York even with 7:20 left in the third.

After gaining possession behind the net, Hilbert walked out on the right side and threw the puck in front. It caromed off the left arm of Vaananen and past Biron, forging a 2-2 tie.

"I was going to center it, then I held on to it," Hilbert said. "I just threw it to the net and it went off one of their players and into the net."

Carter received the opportunity to become the hero after Philadelphia successfully killed defenseman Kimmo Timonen's holding-the-stick penalty, which he received at the end of regulation. Biron, who went 6-0-0 against the Islanders last season, needed to make just one save during the shorthanded situation.

"I'm keeping it simple and not overthinking anything on the ice," Biron said. "You make that first save and you let the rest of the game play itself out. Hopefully, the rebounds are going the right way and the guys are clearing out the front of the net. We've been playing really well defensively and not giving up as many scoring chances as the first couple of weeks. That is the key."

MacDonald turned aside 25 shots for the Islanders, who lost all four visits to Philadelphia last season.

"It's tough, but we've got to keep our heads up," the netminder said. "I thought that we played well. We had some chances, but Marty made some big saves. We battled back when we were down 2-1 and we got that lucky goal. In the overtime, we had some chances."