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Boucher blanks Leafs 2-0

Apr 7, 2010 - 3:03 AM TORONTO(AP) -- Goalie Brian Boucher came up with a big effort to key the Philadelphia Flyers' playoff push.

Boucher made 23 saves to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

Boucher was solid in earning the 17th shutout of his career and 100th win of his career, diving across his crease late in the third period to keep a rolling puck out of the net.

"It's nice to see him play well and nice to see him get his 100th, especially in this big a game," Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger said.

Claude Giroux scored on a first-period power play and Mike Richards scored an empty-net goal for Philadelphia (40-34-6), which passed Boston and moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 86 points.

J.S. Giguere made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs, who finish the season with road games in New York and Montreal.

Giroux gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 10:59 of the first period, just six seconds after Mikhail Grabovski had been sent off for roughing. The 22-year-old took a nice pass from Danny Briere and beat Giguere for his 16th goal of the season.

Toronto had several opportunities to tie it, but was undone by its power play once again. The Leafs squandered six opportunities with a man advantage to run their power-play drought to 30 without a goal.

"Our power play has been god awful a good part of the season," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. "We've got to find people who are going to do some of the grunt work like having (tough guy) Colton Orr on the last power play. It was the only power play where we had sustained pressure because he won some battles and retrieved some pucks."

The building was half empty when the final buzzer sounded - the final NHL game played in the city this season. The young Leafs might have shown signs of promise during a nice run in March, but there weren't many signs of anticipation from a fan base about to enter a sixth straight spring without playoff hockey.

It's something the players understand.

"I would be frustrated if I would be them for sure," Giguere said. "You pay your ticket, (it's) very expensive and there's not much to show for it. I think people have to hopefully keep in mind the last little while here. Since March 3rd, we've been playing really well, I think there's a lot of hope in this dressing room, a lot of good young guys with lots of talent.

"There's something to be enthusiastic about so hopefully we're not going to disappoint the fans next year."

The team feels it's already got a head start on next season with some good play since the Olympic break.

"I think we've taken a step in the right direction in the sense of getting younger and faster," Wilson said. "There's still lots of things we have to address. When this group comes back, we've got to dig in and play harder in certain areas - certainly in front of the other team's net."

Notes: Brayden Irwin, Jamie Lundmark and Jeff Finger were scratched for the Maple Leafs. ... Oskars Batulis, Jeff Carter, Riley Cote and Johan Backlund didn't play for Philadelphia. ... Toronto was 7-4-1 on home ice after the Olympic break.