Laviolette, Flyers claim 4-3 shootout victory over Hurricanes

Flyers top Hurricanes 4-3 in shootout

RALEIGH, N.C. — Mike Richards and Danny Briere scored in the shootout, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on Saturday night to give coach Peter Laviolette a victory against his former club.

Richards, Briere and Jeff Carter scored in regulation for the Flyers, and Michael Leighton stopped his former Carolina teammates cold in the shootout.

The Flyers blew a three-goal lead with 11 minutes left but regrouped to improve to 3-2 in shootouts this season. They won consecutive games for the first time in more than a month and kept the Hurricanes winless in three straight.

Jussi Jokinen scored two goals and Brandon Sutter added one for Carolina, which came up empty on attempts by Tuomo Ruutu and Jokinen in the shootout. Richards ended it in the second round by tucking the puck between Cam Ward’s legs.

For Philadelphia, a season-high six-game road swing that includes the Winter Classic at Fenway Park got started with its first winning streak since mid-November.

It certainly wasn’t easy, though it looked that way early. The Flyers led 2-0 midway through the first period when Richards chipped his rebound past Ward at 10:13 and Carter slipped into the high slot and beat Ward with a high snap shot about 4 minutes later. Briere made it a three-goal game midway through the third.

But instead of burying the Hurricanes, that goal seemed to wake them up. Jokinen’s first goal came 24 seconds later on a backhand, Sutter outmuscled Braydon Coburn to make it 3-2 with 4:02 left and Jokinen tied it with a wrist shot with 3:13 left, giving him his first multigoal game of the season.

Leighton finished with 37 saves for Philadelphia against the team that cut him loose earlier this month. He went 1-4 with Carolina but became expendable to the Hurricanes when they signed Manny Legace to fill in when Ward was hurt, and was claimed off waivers by the Flyers on Dec. 15.

Ward stopped 33 shots against his former backup.

This was a matchup of the only two coaches the Hurricanes’ franchise has known since leaving Hartford.

Paul Maurice shepherded the Whalers’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and led the franchise to the 2002 Stanley Cup final but was fired a year later and was replaced by Laviolette — who led Carolina to its only Cup in 2006 but was fired 2½ years later and was, in turn, replaced by Maurice. The Flyers hired Laviolette on Dec. 4 after they fired John Stevens.

NOTES: Carolina hasn’t beaten the Flyers in regulation since 2006. … Former Flyers D Joni Pitkanen skated in his 100th game with the Hurricanes, while D Niclas Wallin played his 500th career game.