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Lupul, Gagne lift Flyers past Thrashers

Nov 17, 2008 - 3:56 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Joffrey Lupul snapped a tie with 6:17 remaining in the third period as the Philadelphia Flyers notched their 12th consecutive victory over the Atlanta Thrashers with a 4-3 triumph on Sunday.

Simon Gagne recorded a goal and two assists and Mike Knuble also tallied and collected his 200th career assist for Philadelphia, which improved to 3-0-1 in its last four games.

Defenseman Kimmo Timonen scored and Antero Niittymaki turned aside 29 shots to improve to 11-0-0 in his career against the Thrashers.

"It's a remarkable run that he (Niittymaki) has," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "He really was strong tonight. We knew he would have to be. They are a dangerous offensive team, they really press up and I thought he was terrific down the stretch again to keep the streak alive."

Erik Christensen, Bryan Little and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored and Johan Hedberg finished with 28 saves for Atlanta, which was denied in its bid for its franchise-record sixth straight win.

With the game tied at 3-3, Lupul charged into the offensive zone before coming to an abrupt halt in the left faceoff circle. The 25-year-old then unleashed a blast which sailed past Hedberg for his seventh goal of the season and second in the last three games.

"He came in and turned away from the defenseman and started to wind up," Hedberg said of the game-winning goal. "I didn't really get down in time and it squeezed under me."

The goal helped the Flyers ease the pain of squandering a two-goal lead entering the third period.

"We were a little bit deflated on the bench after playing so well for most of the game," Lupul said. "You have to give them credit, they came out and played hard in the third and we were starting to get a little bit tired. So it was a big time for that goal to get some life on the bench."

"It was getting ugly because we came out flat and it almost cost us," Knuble said. "These are the games that you have to win to pull something out if you want to move up in the standings."

Gagne opened the scoring 53 seconds into contest after intercepting a cross-ice pass from Jason Williams and backhanding the puck past Hedberg for his 11th goal of the season. With the tally, he also extended his points streak to five consecutive games.

"We knew that they were the type of team that likes to take chances offensively," Gagne said. "They like to look for those backdoor passes. I saw him (Williams) stop and look for the backdoor defensemen. I read the play and that's how I got my breakaway."

"Early in the game, you don't know what is going on in the game," Hedberg said. "(Gagne) put on a long move there and he was able to get over my leg."

Knuble doubled the advantage with 21 seconds remaining in the session after accepting a feed from Gagne and wristing a shot from the slot for his seventh tally of the campaign.

After Christensen halved the deficit just 5:45 into the second period, Timonen regained the two-goal lead nearly six minutes later by blasting a shot past a thoroughly screened Hedberg for his second goal of the season.

Little closed the deficit to 3-2 just 35 seconds into the third and leveled the contest with 7:57 remaining in the session.

"We had a good third period but we have to learn to play like that all game," Little said. "When we had the kind of start that we did, we're going to lose hockey games. We have to play three periods like we did in the third."