Flyers Pick on Weak to Succeed

The wings on the Philadelphia jerseys ought to be attached to buzzards. The Flyers know what to do with NHL carrion.

John LeClair scored two goals for the Flyers, who peppered the New York Islanders with 41 shots en route to a 4-1 victory Tuesday night at Philadelphia.

Pat Falloon added a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who have a three-game winning streak for the first time since Dec. 14-17.

It helped that Philadelphia was playing the Islanders. The Flyers, who climbed to within three points of the Atlantic Division-leading- New York Rangers, are 19-3-5 against teams with sub-.500 records and have five consecutive games against teams without a winning record before running into Pittsburgh on March 31.

“These are the kind of games you have to win just to keep pace,” said Rod Brind’Amour, who had two assists. “It’s nice that we’re closing the gap [on the Rangers]. At one point, it looked like we were falling too far behind.”

LeClair’s first goal gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead and was the Flyers’ fourth in a row with a man advantage. Before that streak, they had gone one for 37 on the power play.

Detroit 6, Toronto 5--After third-period goals by Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman gave the Red Wings--who won their seventh game in a row--a 6-3 lead at home, Toronto came back with late goals from Wendel Clark and Mats Sundin.

Florida 5, Ottawa 2--Jody Hull scored two goals, his first in 13 games and the Panthers snapped Ottawa’s three-game winning streak with a victory over the Senators at Miami.

Edmonton 4, New York 1--Mariusz Czerkawski and Boris Mironov had two goals apiece for the Oilers, who won at New York.

Colorado 4, Vancouver 3--An unlikely goal by enforcer Chris Simon gave the Avalanche a victory at Vancouver and sent the Canucks to their sixth loss in a row, the longest losing streak for the franchise in five seasons.

NHL Notes

The St. Louis Blues acquired veteran defenseman Charlie Huddy and a 1996 seventh-round draft pick from the Buffalo Sabres for the rights to junior left wing Denis Hamel. Huddy is the fourth former Edmonton Oiler acquired by Blues Coach Mike Keenan in the past three weeks, the third since St. Louis traded for Wayne Gretzky from the Kings. . . . Montreal Canadien defenseman Vladimir Malakhov will sit out six weeks after suffering a knee injury in a victory over Buffalo on Monday. . . . The Philadelphia Flyers acquired veteran defenseman Kerry Huffman from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for future considerations.