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Flyers' third-period surge scuttles Bruins

Mar 4, 2009 - 4:13 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Simon Gagne scored two third-period goals to power the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

With the game tied at 1-1 entering the third period, Gagne broke the deadlock with his 25th goal of the season. Gagne tipped a shot past Manny Fernandez at 2:22. The assists went to Andrew Alberts and Mike Knuble.

Little more than three minutes later, Knuble doubled the advantage with a wrist shot off a feed from Gagne. Captain Mike Richards picked up the other assist.

"It was a blind play," Gagne said of his feed. "I saw a white jersey in front of net, I know Richie took the puck behind the net so I thought it was Nubie in front. I'm not gonna lie to you. I just tried to put it there as quick as I can and it went right on his tape."

Gagne recorded his second of the game and 26th of the season off a beautiful feed from Richards at 16:25. Gagne took a gorgeous pass from Richards, and took his time before easily beating Fernandez from in close to finish off the Bruins.

Gagne wound up with two goals and an assist. Knuble, who was playing in his 800th career game, had a goal and two assists and Richards picked up two assists for the Flyers.

"We talked about that before the game," Knuble said of his milestone. "Guys were saying make it memorable and I think it was just because it was here in Boston. We had a good night, too. I'm happy for the way our line contributed at the end. That's what we're supposed to do."

The rest was left to Antero Niittymaki. The Finnish goaltender made 22 saves as he kept the Bruins at bay after giving up a first-period goal to Patrice Bergeron until Mark Stuart scored at 19:18 of the third period on a wrist shot.

Niittymaki highlighted the first period with a stunning save off David Krejci, who was alone in front when he fired a shot that was ticketed for the right corner. Niittymaki flashed his glove hand and made the save.

"I tried to get up but I couldn't so that's why I was late and had to make a desperate save," Niittymaki said. "Good thing I got my glove there."

Bergeron gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead with 5:35 left in the first period on his first power-play goal since October 6, 2007. All-Star defenseman Zdeno Chara fed Bergeron in the right faceoff circle, where the center one-timed a slapshot past Niittymaki stick-side. It was Bergeron's seventh goal of the season and third in his last seven games.

Philadelphia got the equalizer thanks to a sloppy play by the Bruins. Marc Savard's attempt to pass out of the Bruins' zone early in the second was intercepted by Scottie Upshall. The 25-year-old right wing skated in untouched on Fernandez and beat him for his seventh goal of the season just 1:49 in.

"Yeah it was a bad giveaway," Savard said. "I haven't had too many of those in a while, but it was right on his tape and I took it upon myself to try to get it back, but obviously I fell short. I made a mistake there."

Upshall's goal snapped a scoreless streak of 111:27 for the Flyers dating to the second period of a 4-3 overtime loss against Montreal on Friday.

The Bruins missed a golden chance to take the lead with less than three minutes left in the second period when Byron Bitz hit the goalpost and the Niitymaki fell with the puck underneath his back.

"It certainly wasn't a pretty one, I'm not gonna pretend it was," Bruins coach Claude Julien said after his team lost its second straight on a six-game homestand. "We just didn't seem to have our legs tonight, we weren't skating and when your feet aren't moving the rest just doesn't work."