Power gets tiebreaking goal early in third period as Sabres beat Flyers

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Owen Power scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists, and Brandon Biro scored twice to help the Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 Wednesday night.

Casey Mittelstadt also scored and Alex Tuch had two assists to help the Sabres get their third win in four games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a season-high 38 saves — including two from point-blank range in the third — while making his fourth start.

“It wasn’t definitely our best game, but you take the win as best you can,” Power said.

Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson scored for the Flyers, who have lost three in a row and five of their last six games. Carter Hart gave up two goals on five shots and left the game midway through the first period with a ‘mid-body’ injury following a collision in the goalmouth earlier in the period. Sam Ersson finished with seven saves the rest of the way.

Flyers coach John Tortorella said there was no update on Hart’s condition. An update may not come on Thursday with the Flyers having a travel day before going to Buffalo for a game on Friday night. Ersson — who has struggled in three games now — would likely have to be the starter if Hart is out long term.

Most of the game was played in front of Luukkonen, who stabilized the attack after surrendering the Flyers’ two goals in the first period. The Flyers outshot Buffalo 40-15 on the night and 30-8 in the final two periods.

“We locked down defensively,” Luukkonen said. “Even thought they had a lot of shots, the defense was unreal in boxing out and blocking shots. It wasn’t pretty but a win is a win.”

The young Flyers appeared frustrated by the lack of success with all of the offensive chances that were not being converted.

“After another slow start, I thought we played really well,” Tortorella said. “We gathered ourself, but we didn’t finish. They had 11 or 12 chances for a 60 minute game. But we can’t seem to get over the two (score) hole. We created 25 or 26 scoring chances, but we just have to stay with it.”

Farabee got the Flyers on the scoreboard first, just 55 seconds into the game.

Mittelstadt tied it at 3:38 for his third and Biro got his first to put the Sabres ahead 2-1 at the 10-minute mark. Hart left the game after that.

Atkinson tied it with 3:43 left in the period with his sixth.

After a scoreless second period, Power put the Sabres ahead for good at 3:03 of the third with his first goal on a shot that beat Ersson on the glove side just inside the left post.

“Tage put it in a good spot and dropped it,” Power said. “I just walked in and shot it. It’s nice getting my first earlier than last year.”

Thompson took advantage of a Philadelphia turnover to beat Errsson for his fifth with 6 1/2 minutes remaining and Biro had an empty-netter with 3:08 left to seal the win.

“It was a good reset for us going in tied into the third and we limited second chances on the net,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “This was a very competitive group we played against with pace.”

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The two teams will move the home and home set to Buffalo on Friday night.