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Hartnell helps Flyers crush Senators

Jan 21, 2008 - 4:27 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Scott Hartnell continued to lead one of the NHL's hottest teams on Sunday night.

One day after recording his second hat trick in five games, Hartnell notched the game-winning goal as the Philadelphia Flyers cruised to their fourth consecutive victory, a 6-1 triumph over the Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa Senators.

Scottie Upshall netted two goals and set up another and defenseman Braydon Coburn had a tally and two assists for the Flyers, who have posted a 10-1-3 record over their last 14 contests and climbed into a three-way tie atop the Atlantic Division with the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins.

"It was another solid 60 minutes of hockey for us," Hartnell said. "We got the lead, we didn't look back on them and we got another two points.

"When you face the top team in the conference, you have to come out hard. We haven't done well against either (New Jersey or Pittsburgh), and we have them both before the All-Star break, so we have to go right after them."

Ottawa, which entered with a conference-high 162 goals this season, failed to match Philadelphia's offensive firepower in this one without All-Stars Dany Heatley and captain Daniel Alfredsson.

Heatley will miss at least another month with a separated shoulder, while Alfredsson is day-to-day with a hip flexor, which he suffered Thursday. The Senators failed to score in Saturday's loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning without their top two goal-scorers.

"We didn't have a lot good players tonight," Senators coach John Paddock said. "I'm disappointed in a lot of our individuals for not stepping up here. They're just not being responsible, not doing the right thing."

The Flyers wasted little time getting on the scoresheet. Coburn capitalized on Mike Knuble's screen just 97 seconds into the contest. With Knuble agitating Martin Gerber, Coburn blasted a one-timer past the Swiss goaltender for his third goal of the season.

Hartnell scored his 10th goal in seven games on a man advantage with 6:44 remaining in the opening session to give Philadelphia a 2-0 edge. The Flyers, who entered with the top-ranked power play at 24.9 percent, went 2-for-7 against the Senators.

"It was another lucky bounce as it went off the post, then (Gerber's) pad and in the net," Hartnell said. "Our power play has been clicking for us. When you have these stretch of games for us, you want to capitalize as much as you can."

The Flyers continued the offensive onslaught in the second period as goals by Upshall and R.J. Umberger in the first four minutes made it 4-0. Upshall scored just 44 seconds into the session and Umberger tallied at 3:50 after Senators defenseman Anton Volchenkov inadvertently knocked down Gerber.

"Those are the kind of games where you have to keep going line after line," said Upshall, who also tallied during a 5-on-3 power play late in the third. "You have to keep playing hard and not turn the puck over, and that's that we did."

Antero Niittymaki yielded Ottawa's lone goal when Chris Kelly received a long saucer pass from former Flyer Randy Robitaille and fired a wrist shot top shelf at 7:27 of the second.

Niittymaki made 25 saves to record his sixth win in seven starts.

Ray Emery replaced Gerber at the start of the third period and gave up a shorthanded tally by Sami Kapanen at 3:49 that gave the Flyers a 5-1 bulge. It was the first shorthanded goal allowed by the Senators this season.

"Having so many new players, it takes probably three to four months to get together and start clicking as a team," Kapanen said. "Going into the stretch was huge for us, and so far we're doing pretty good."

Gerber stopped just 10 of the 14 shots he faced, while Emery allowed two goals on seven shots.

While much of the pregame talk surrounded rookie Steve Downie's first meeting with Ottawa since unloading a vicious hit on Dean McAmmond in the preseason, the reunion came and went without incident. Downie finished the game with an assist and no penalty minutes.

"Well, the league would frown upon it," Paddock said of retaliating against Downie, who received a 20-game suspension for his hit. "It's something the suspension already addressed. I think the case was closed a long time ago."

"We're in the situation now where we need to win hockey games," said McAmmond, a former Flyer. "To come in here and be worried about Downie is a short-sight on our part."

A fight between Ottawa's Brian McGrattan and Philadelphia's Riley Cote in the first period did result in McGrattan leaving the game with a shoulder injury.