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Knuble, Richards lift Flyers past Sabres

Feb 20, 2009 - 4:26 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Mike Knuble snapped a tie late in the third period with a power-play goal to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to their third straight win, a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Captain Mike Richard netted a pair of goals - including his league-leading sixth shorthanded tally of the season - and added three assists for the Flyers, who have won five of their last six contests.

"(Richards) makes a difference when he plays," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "I think he was terrific tonight in all facets of the game. I thought it was a hard hockey game and he really stepped up for us."

Former Sabre Martin Biron made 39 saves and Glen Metropolit, Braydon Coburn and Darroll Powe scored for Philadelphia, which leads the NHL with 15 shorthanded goals this campaign.

Defenseman Jaroslav Spacek notched a pair of goals and Derek Roy added a power-play tally for Buffalo, which has lost four of its last six games.

"We probably didn't put enough pucks on the net," Spacek said. "You try to be too cute and make the extra pass. You got to put pucks on the net."

With the score knotted at 3-3, the Flyers' forecheck forced a turnover behind the net. Simon Gagne then made a quick centering pass to Knuble, who fired a one-timer past Sabres netminder Ryan Miller for his 20th goal of the campaign with 6:09 remaining in the third period.

"Simon, Mike and I have played together a lot this year," Knuble said. "I feel that we've been consistent. With 25 games to go, we want to get our game back and pick up the intensity. We want to try to lead the team. I think that is our responsibility."

"We got running around a little bit," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "They got confused a lot and we were trying to carry it out. I think Gagne got a stick on that. We had a couple of chances to get it out. That is a tough way to give up a goal."

Richards and Powe each added an empty-netter in the final minute to seal the win.

"I thought everyone played well tonight," Richards said. "I think we executed our game plan. We didn't give them too many chances off of the rush. We probably took too many penalties, but we were able to kill off a few of them."

Miller stopped 30 of the 34 shots he faced.