Svoboda Injured, but Flyers Win

There was drama on the ice Thursday at Philadelphia.

Eric Desjardins scored from the right circle with 29.8 seconds remaining in overtime to enable the Philadelphia Flyers to defeat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2.

But the most dramatic moment came earlier when Flyer defenseman Petr Svoboda was elbowed at 7:50 of the second period by Montreal center Marc Bureau. Svoboda, 29, lay motionless just off the red line for about five minutes. He was bleeding from the mouth and the back of the head. He finally regained consciousness after leaving the ice on a stretcher. Svoboda was taken to Pennsylvania Hospital for X-rays.

Bureau was given a major penalty for elbowing, but the Flyers went after the Canadiens for revenge and two major brawls broke out. The result was 19 second-period penalties, including seven majors, for 99 minutes.

The fighting wasn’t limited to the ice.

At the end of the second, Philadelphia’s Shawn Antoski and Montreal’s Donald Brashear, who had tangled with 22.7 seconds remaining in the period, met in the hallway between the two dressing rooms and traded blows.

The loss ended Philadelphia’s four-game winless streak (0-2-2) and Montreal’s four-game winning streak.

OTHER GAMES

Alexander Mogilny scored with 7.9 seconds to go to give the Vancouver Canucks a 2-2 tie with the St. Louis Blues at St. Louis. It was Mogilny’s 40th goal. . . . Jody Hull knocked a rebound past Bill Ranford at 11:15 of the third period and John Vanbiesbrouck stopped four Boston shots in overtime as the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers played to a 2-2 tie at Boston. . . . Dale Hunter scored the game-winner midway through the third period as the Washington Capitals overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-2, at Kanata, Canada. . . . Alexei Zhamnov had his first hat trick of the season for the Winnipeg Jets, but they still lost to the Colorado Avalanche, 6-4, at Denver . . . Brian Rolston scored with 3:18 left in regulation to stretch the New Jersey Devils’ unbeaten streak to five games with a 1-1 tie against the Calgary Flames at Calgary.