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Flyers beat Sabres, lock up 5th seed

Apr 6, 2012 - 3:42 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Marc-Andre Bourdon and Matt Read scored in the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers locked their playoff position while knocking Buffalo out of the postseason with a 2-1 win.

Philadelphia will be seeded fifth and will face cross-state rival Pittsburgh, which downed the Rangers on Thursday to take the fourth seed.

Buffalo, meanwhile, was knocked out of contention with the loss and Washington's win over Florida on Thursday.

Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots in the win for the Flyers, who went 22-13-6 at home and will finish the regular season in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

"I expected Buffalo was going to play like that because every game for them was so important," said Bryzgalov. "It was a playoff race and we basically knew they would be very patient, like a silent killer, waiting to strike and use their chances."

Ville Leino scored the lone goal while Ryan Miller allowed two on 35 shots for the Sabres, who dropped three of their last four games and will now miss the postseason for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

Philly was trailing in the third when Bourdon tied the game. Claude Giroux had the puck down low to the left of the net and passed it back to the point for Andres Lilja, who sent the puck over to the top of the right circle where Bourdon one-timed it home at the 6:05 mark.

The Flyers took the lead after Jakub Voracek flipped the puck out of his end and Read caught up to it. Read then blew past Robyn Regehr and cut to the front before waiting out Miller to the right and snapping it past the glove with 4:21 left.

"We came out with a pretty sold game defensively," said Regehr. "I thought the guys played really hard, and in our zone especially the first half of the game. We had opportunities, the difference was it came down to the play in the neutral zone, but I thought I could be a little more aggressive, I had to win that one on one, I ended up getting beat and it cost us the hockey game, that was the difference."

Buffalo broke the scoreless game with 2:34 left in the second period after Leino slammed home the puck in the goalmouth after a Flyer missed a clearing swipe.

Game Notes

The Flyers took all four games against Buffalo for the second time in the past four seasons...Buffalo plays its final game of the season in Boston on Saturday...Philly had just one power play chance while Buffalo had two...Read leads all rookies with 24 goals.