Carter's 3 Points Lift Flyers Over Sabres
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Jeff Carter scored a goal and had two assists, and the Philadelphia Flyers survived a third-period flurry to beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Danny Briere and Claude Giroux each added a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, which had lost four of five. The Flyers were especially angry with how they played Monday in a 2-1 loss at Columbus, a game in which they said they lacked energy.
Nikolay Zherdev, Darroll Powe and Andreas Nodl also scored for the Flyers (4-4-1). Sergei Bobrovsky had 31 saves.
Thomas Vanek scored in the first period, and Tyler Myers and Steve Montador added goals in the third for the Sabres, who dropped to 3-6-1. Derek Roy had two assists, raising his team-leading point total to 11. Roy has led Buffalo in scoring the past three seasons.
Buffalo took a 1-0 lead when Montador's shot from the blue line deflected off Vanek and over Bobrovsky's right shoulder. After scoring one goal in his first eight games, Vanek has three goals in two games.
The Flyers poured it on from there, peppering goalie Ryan Miller with 33 shots.
Briere answered Vanek's power-play goal with one with 4:45 remaining in the first period. His team-leading sixth goal came off a feed from Carter. Briere wrapped around the front of the net and fired his rebound past Miller.
Half of Briere's goals have come on the power play, and the center is off to his best start since scoring nine goals in nine games with the Sabres in 2005.
The Eastern Conference champion Flyers scored three times against Miller. Zherdev's goal was first at 4:43 when he weaved through traffic and flipped a wrist shot past Miller's stick side. Scott Hartnell earned his 200th NHL assist on the goal.
At 11:44, Giroux fed a cross-ice during an odd-man rush to give Powe an easy goal.
Nearly three minutes later, Giroux scored an unassisted goal. He won a faceoff and fired a shot in off defenseman Michael Grier's left skate.
Carter gave Philadelphia a 5-1 lead 38 seconds into the third period during a power play. He deflected in Mike Richards' shot from the faceoff circle.
Myers, last season's NHL rookie of the year, cut the Sabres' deficit to 5-2. Of the game's eight goals, five were scored during power plays. Montador brought Buffalo within 5-3 with 7:28 left.
Luke Adam, recalled by Buffalo from Portland of the AHL, made his NHL debut. Shortly after hitting the post with a first-period shot, he was charged with his first penalty -- interference.
Notes: The Flyers honored former defenseman Barry Ashbee in a pregame ceremony, and presented his original retired No. 4 banner to his family. Ashbee died of leukemia in 1977. ... Adam replaced Rob Niedermayer, who stayed in Buffalo to be with his wife, who gave birth to a girl on Monday. ... Buffalo managing partner Larry Quinn is recovering from heart surgery on Monday that repaired an aortic aneurysm. ... Sabres defenseman Craig Rivet (shoulder) is day to day. RW Jason Pominville (concussion) hopes to begin skating later this week.
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