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Ward's goal gives Bruins OT win over Flyers

Jan 12, 2008 - 11:52 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Boston Bruins took advantage of goaltender Antero Niittymaki's bad clearing attempt to add tothe Philadelphia Flyers' home woes.Defenseman Aaron Ward gathered a loose puck along the right wingboards after Niittymaki failed to get it out of the zone andripped a slap shot past the goaltender 43 seconds into overtimeSaturday, giving the Bruins a 4-3 win over the Flyers."I saw that Niittymaki was coming out and he had a choice ofeither the right side or the left," Ward said. "I just jumpedup and saw the puck go up my side. He really didn't have achance to place the puck, and that was the reason why I jumpedin the zone."Niittymaki, who recorded 28 saves, admitted he did not seeWard's shot beat him."When I heard that he was going to shoot it, I went down,"Niittymaki said. "I heard that he broke his stick on the shot.It was a bad break."Ward's unassisted goal came after the Flyers erased a 3-1deficit in the third period on goals by Scott Hartnell andDaniel Briere just over two minutes apart."It came at a good time," Ward said. "Giving up a 3-1 leadisn't the direction you want to take on the road. The fact thatwe battled back and kept our composure is a good sign for thisteam."Although Philadelphia rallied in the third period, Briere wasunhappy with his team's effort."We tried to play the passive game," he said. "They kind of putus to sleep, and it's almost the way they wanted it to be.When we fell behind in the third, we realized that we had to getback to the basics."The Flyers had an overall three-game winning streak snapped andlost for the fifth time in their last six home contests."It seems like at home, we're shooting ourselves in the foot forthe first 40 minutes," Hartnell said. "Then, in the last 10,we're the best team in the league. We've got to figure out howto play well the whole 60 minutes."After registering 12 shots through two periods, Philadelphiapeppered Boston netminder Alex Auld with 11 in the third."We feel that if we play like we did in the third period, we'rea dangerous team," Briere said. "I know that it's not a goodfeeling no matter how you lose, but you try to see thepositive."Jeff Carter's power-play goal gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead with8:29 left in the first period, but Marc Savard and Marco Sturmscored with the man advantage in the second session to giveBoston a 2-1 edge. Coming into the contest, the Bruins werescoreless on their last nine power-play chances."We moved around well and we had good looks," Savard said."When we get good looks, we're going to score. We want tocontinue to build momentum on the power play. It was one of ourspecialities, and it worked tonight."Peter Schaefer scored his first goal in 14 games 4:51 into thethird period, extending the Bruins' lead to 3-1."It a bit of a motley crew for us right now," Ward said. "Wehave guys who I'm sure are tired of going from the AHL toBoston. The young guys are stepping up and are showingmanagement that they are capable of playing."Defenseman Zdeno Chara picked up assists on Boston's first threetallies.Auld stopped 21 shots for the Bruins, ending a personalthree-game losing streak.The Flyers now have lost twice to the Bruins at home thisseason."We did everything but win the hockey game," Flyers coach JohnStevens said. "You can only stop and wonder how good we'd be ifwe played with that kind of urgency for 60 minutes. Thepositive is that we were able to come back, but until we playwith that type of urgency for 60 minutes, I think we'll letpoints slip away."