PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Patrice Bergeron gave the Boston Bruins a
huge lift with a pretty goal.
The Boston rookie scored an unassisted goal late in the second
period in the Bruins' 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on
Thursday night.
Bergeron, who also had an assist, snapped a 2-2 tie when he
picked up the puck in his defensive zone, skated untouched to the
right circle, and fired a wrist shot high over goalie Sean Burke's
outstretched glove.
"That's not always my type of goal," Bergeron said. "I'm more
the type of guy that's going to pick up a rebound. I try to be at
the right spot in front of the net. But this goal was just on
transition. I'm pretty happy it went in."
Hal Gill, Rob Zamuner, and Glen Murray also scored to help the
Bruins move into a second-place tie with Ottawa in the Northeast
Division.
"Berge is very poised beyond his years," veteran Bruins center
Brian Rolston said about the 18-year-old Bergeron. "To be as aware
as he is in the defensive zone as well as in the offensive zone --
he plays the whole game. He's got tremendous patience and just
waited the goalie out."
John LeClair scored twice and Simon Gagne added a goal for the
Flyers, who dropped their third straight game, the team's longest
losing streak since losing four straight from Jan. 8-13.
"I think it was evident tonight that we sat back and waited for
things to happen," LeClair said. "We reacted instead of making it
happen."
Before the game, the Flyers acquired center Alexei Zhamnov and a
fourth-round pick in the June draft from the Chicago Blackhawks for
defenseman Jim Vandermeer, the rights to unsigned draft choice
Colin Fraser, and a second-round pick.
The teams traded bad goals in a 15-second span early in the
first period, then traded a pair of shaky rebound goals later in
the period.
"We didn't have the start that we wanted to," Boston coach
Mike Sullivan said. "But I thought we certainly wanted to put the
puck on the net as often as we could."
At 4:01, Gill threw the puck toward the net from the boards. The
puck kicked off Philadelphia defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson's skate
and bounced off Burke's glove into the goal.
Gagne made it 1-1 at 4:16 when he beat Boston goalie Felix
Potvin high to the glove side with a wrist shot.
Zamuner put the Bruins ahead at 10:37 when he hammered in a
rebound of a shot by Brian Rolston. LeClair tied in at 15:36 when
he flicked in a shot by Kim Johnsson that Potvin failed to cover.
"I thought we outplayed them in the first period," Flyers
coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Then they outplayed us. We turned it
over and made the mistake and it (Bergeron's goal) ended up in our
net."
Murray scored a power play goal on a rebound 31 seconds into the
third period, and LeClair cut it to 4-3 at 15:23.
Game notes
Boston played the sixth game of a seven-game road trip, its
longest of the season. The Bruins are 4-0-0-2 and wrap up the trip
at Carolina on Saturday. ... Gill's goal was his first in 24 games
and only his second of the season. ... The Bruins haven't lost in
regulation since being beaten by Florida on Jan. 24. They are
8-0-1-2 since then.