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Richards helps Flyers to comeback win over Coyotes

Nov 23, 2008 - 5:27 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Captain Mike Richards set up the tying goal with 67 seconds left in regulation and scored 1:35 into overtime as the Philadelphia Flyers rallied for a 4-3 triumph over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday.

Jeff Carter scored a goal and set up another and Scott Hartnell and Mike Knuble also tallied as Philadelphia notched its fourth straight victory.

Martin Hanzal registered a goal and an assist, Daniel Carcillo netted his first tally of the season and former Flyer Todd Fedoruk also scored for Phoenix, which fell to 0-4-1 in its last five games.

"I thought our guys played hard," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "Hanz (Martin Hanzal) played well tonight. It was nice to see Fedoruk get a goal, he played hard. We did a lot of good things, but the big negative was that it was a tough loss tonight."

Trailing, 3-2, late in the third, Philadelphia pulled goaltender Martin Biron for an extra attacker. Stationed at the top of the left faceoff circle, Richards calmly wristed a sharp pass to Carter, who redirected the puck past netminder Mikael Tellqvist from the slot for his team-leading 14th goal of the season.

"(Tellqvist's) such a big goalie, it's so hard to find some holes on him," Carter said. "I wasn't really getting too many good shots. A lot of them were on the ice."

Richards and Carter teamed up again in overtime to get the better of Tellqvist, who was making his first start in 12 games.

Carter forced a turnover in the defensive zone and fed Richards, who led a 2-on-1 rush after serving an interference penalty. Richards skated across the blue line and, with Carter converging on the net, patiently unleashed a sharp wrist shot past Tellqvist for the game-winning goal.

"(Richards) doesn't want to be in the box at any time, let alone in overtime," Carter said. "I knew when he came out of the box, he was going to be firing. It's nice to be out there with him because you know he's going to leave everything out on the ice."

Richards deflected the credit to Carter.

"He's really playing unreal and doing a lot of good things on the penalty kill and on the power play," Richards said. "He's also playing against their top guys every night. Right now, he's doing everything he can to win us hockey games, and we're just following along with him."

"The game is on the line in the third period into overtime," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "Richie is in the box, so you have to count on (Carter) there. The end of the third period into overtime, (Carter) was lugging the puck. He was confident and he wanted the puck. You almost have this feeling that you're going to go down and score just because Jeff had that look in his eye where somehow we are going to win the hockey game."

A seventh-round pick of the Flyers in 1997, Fedoruk had given the Coyotes a 3-2 lead with 5:14 remaining in the third, when he wristed a shot past Biron for his second goal of the season.

"I think it hit (blue-liner Lasse) Kukkonen's glove, and it took a bounce on the ice," Biron said. "(Defenseman Andrew) Alberts told me he was right behind the whole play and said it took a curve to the right and hit the inside of the post. It almost looked like it was going to miss the net, and it bounced over my pad. It was a weird bounce."

"We scored a strange goal, too, so I guess it evens it up," Richards said of Fedoruk's goal. "When you get a break like that from our goal, it gives you the momentum, and then when they get a goal like that, it gives them the momentum. I thought we fed off of our penalty-killing tonight and carried it into the overtime and seemed to capitalize."

After Hanzal scored with 51 seconds left in the second period to give Phoenix a 2-1 advantage, Knuble leveled the contest just over five minutes into the third by deflecting a shot from the point by defenseman Kimmo Timonen past Tellqvist for his eighth tally.

Hartnell opened the scoring 6:18 into the first period, firing a centering a pass into the slot that caromed off both Phoenix defenseman Zbynek Michalek's skate and Tellqvist's right pad before trickling into the net.

Carcillo forged a 1-1 tie with 70 seconds remaining in the session. Attempting to play the puck behind his own net, Biron put it right on the stick of Carcillo, who deposited it into the vacant net from the right side of the crease.

Phoenix struggled on the power play, going 1-for-8 with the man advantage.

"I think if you look at most of the game, it was a pretty solid game," Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski said. "Our goaltender played great. We moved the puck and had some great opportunities. Just need to cash in when we have the opportunities."