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Hartnell, Carter key Flyers past Sabres

Mar 11, 2009 - 3:58 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Scott Hartnell recorded two goals and two assists and All-Star Jeff Carter also tallied twice as the Philadelphia Flyers scored four times in the third period en route to a 5-2 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Captain Mike Richards scored a goal and set up another while Joffrey Lupul and defenseman Kimmo Timonen notched a pair of assists apiece for Philadelphia, which improved to 10-4-1 in its last 15 games.

"I don't care if I score every game. As long as we win, I'm happy, so it doesn't matter to me," Carter said. "It's nice to put some pucks in and help the team, but that's not what I'm worried about."

Flyers coach John Stevens credited his team's aggressiveness on the power play for its success on Tuesday. Philadelphia went 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

"We have two of the best net guys in the league with Hartnell and (Mike) Knuble," Stevens said. "We have guys that have a lot of composure with the puck. Guys like Richards, Kimmo, Jeff Carter and Lupul. (Defenseman Braydon Coburn) has a great one-timer.

"You put pucks on the net when people are there and good things are going to happen."

Martin Biron made 27 saves to improve to 6-2-0 with one shutout in his last nine appearances.

Maxim Afinogenov and Jochen Hecht scored for Buffalo, which fell to 2-4-1 in its last seven contests.

"We just made some mistakes we shouldn't have made in the third," Afinogenov said. "We played pretty good until the third, and those mistakes hurt us.

"We have to forget about that because we have 16 games left and we need to make the playoffs. We need to push, and we have to make a run now and win some games. We need to get a good streak going."

Thomas Vanek, who leads the Sabres with 33 goals, has seen this scenario before.

"We are in the same situation that we were in last year," Vanek said. "We know that we can't wait to the last two weeks of the season to win all those games and get in the playoffs. We can't wait for the teams ahead of us to lose games. We have to go out and do our job."

Patrick Lalime turned aside 25 shots before being pulled in the third period in favor of Mikael Tellqvist, who finished with three saves.

With the game tied at 1-1, Carter deflected a centering feed from Lupul past Lalime just 27 seconds into the third period to give the Flyers a lead they would not relinquish.

"When you get a goal in the first 30 seconds of the third period, it's a huge momentum switch in the game," Biron said. "We used that to our advantage."

Richards doubled the advantage 4 1/2 minutes later and Carter added his second of the night - and team-leading 38th of the season - just 85 seconds later, tucking the puck past Lalime.

Hartnell gave the Flyers a 5-1 bulge after deflecting the puck off his chest and past Tellqvist for his 24th tally of the campaign.

"We got pucks to the net," Hartnell said. "Richards got a tip on a shot from (Timonen). Those kind of things and being able to battle around the net led to some goals on the power play - and hopefully, will lead to more success."