By Sean Pollard
Scottie Upshall scored on a breakaway with 9.9 seconds left in overtime to give Philadelphia a 4-3 win over Boston in Martin Biron's Flyers debut.
With time running out in the extra session, Biron came up with a huge save through a screen in front of the Philadelphia net. Sami Kapanen collected the rebound and set an outlet pass to Upshall, who outraced Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference before beating Boston netminder Tim Thomas with a pretty forehand-to-backhand move for the game-winner.
Biron, acquired from the Sabres for a second-round draft pick on Tuesday, recovered from a rough start to finish with 34 saves, while Joni Pitkanen, R.J. Umberger and Mike Richards each scored for the Flyers, who put the breaks on a five-game losing streak.
Mark Mowers had two first period goals and Zdeno Chara also scored for the Bruins, who have dropped three straight after a four-game winning streak.
Thomas, meanwhile, was huge for Boston, coming up with 51 saves as Philadelphia set a road-record for shots on net with 55.
The Bruins got off to a fast start thanks to Mowers' two goals, the first of which came on a breakaway 4:10 into the first period. Then, after a neutral- ice turnover by the Flyers, Mowers fired the puck off the left post and past Biron to make it 2-0 just under four minutes later.
Biron and Philadelphia settled down and the Flyers responded with three straight goals to surge in front. Pitkanen got things going for the Flyers when he took a nice cross-ice feed from Mike York and beat Thomas to cut Philadelphia's deficit in half with 9:21 left in the first.
Umberger's power play tally five minutes into the middle stanza tied the game at 2-2 before Richards' shorthanded goal off a nice 2-on-1 break with Kapanen put Philadelphia up with 8:27 left in the second period.
However, Philadelphia's lead was short-lived. Flyers forward Jeff Carter was called for slashing less than a minuter later, giving Boston a 5-on-3 power play. The Bruins quickly took advantage as Chara poked home the rebound off Marco Sturm's shot from the point.
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