MATT SLOCUM / Associated Press
The Flyers' Jared Ross (right) and goaltender Ray Emery block a shot in the opening period.Ross later suffered a head injury when he was sent into the boards by Patrick Kaleta.
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Flyers lick wounds after bruising 4-2 loss
The Flyers and Buffalo Sabres were in a foul mood yesterday.
Both have been going through tough times. The Flyers returned to the Wachovia Center after a bumpy five-game road trip. The Sabres entered the matinee with a season-worst four-game losing streak.
So it wasn't surprising that the teams were testy in a physical, sometimes dirty affair in which the Sabres prevailed, 4-2, in front of a sellout crowd of 19,673.
Dan Carcillo got into two fights with Buffalo's Craig Rivet and won both.
The Sabres' Patrick Kaleta injured Jared Ross' head by sending him into the boards in the first period. Kaleta received a game misconduct penalty. Ross' injury was not believed to be serious.
The Flyers' Scott Hartnell and Riley Cote tried to check virtually every Sabre in the same area code.
Maybe they should have called it Black and Blue Friday.
Flyers winger Ian Laperriere was the most black and blue. He blocked a first-period shot with his mouth, lost four teeth, and took between 50 and 100 stitches - then returned to play the final period.
"A warrior," coach John Stevens called him.
But even Laperriere's grittiness couldn't help the Flyers avoid their fourth loss in their last five games.
"This was an emotional game; they were fired up to come in here to play, and we were riding high after that late win in Long Island," Hartnell said, referring to Wednesday night's 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders. "I'll start with Carcillo, him having a couple of big tilts, and Laperriere blocking that shot with his face and coming back a period-and-a-half later. With all that stuff, we would've liked to have gotten two points and the win, but we just feel a little empty right now."
Buffalo center Tim Connolly had two goals - both in the third period, snapping a 2-2 tie - and two assists.
"It's always a tough battle when you play these guys," Connolly said. "They have a lot of guys who are real good agitators. I think if you can stay out of the box and just play physical with them, you have a good chance."
"When you've lost the number of games we'd lost in a row, you've got to show that desperation if you want to win again," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We've talked about the desperation, and I thought tonight that desperation and emotion showed up."
With a little more than eight minutes remaining in the first period, a power-play goal by James van Riemsdyk was disallowed because it was ruled that Mike Richards had made incidental contact with Sabres goalie Ryan Miller.
Replays showed that Richards had been cross-checked into Miller by defenseman Toni Lydman.
"That's a key point early on the power play; it gives your power play confidence," Stevens said. "It seemed like if anything could go wrong, it did, but I can't fault the effort."
Buffalo took a 3-2 lead on Connolly's goal with 14 minutes, 33 seconds left.
Clarke MacArthur skated into the Flyers' zone and, from the high slot, sent a perfect through-the-legs backward pass to Connolly, who fired a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past goalie Ray Emery.
With 9:08 to play, Connolly, to the right of the net, flipped a shot that traveled perhaps three feet and bounced off Emery's helmet and into the net, making it 4-2.
After allowing a fluky goal that deflected off defenseman Matt Carle's stick, the Flyers had scored twice in the final minute of the first period.
Richards took a slick pass from van Riemsdyk and sent a backhander off Miller's left pad to tie the score with 34 seconds left. With just four seconds remaining, Braydon Coburn's point shot deflected off Connolly and past Miller to put the Flyers ahead, 2-1.
Buffalo tied it on Paul Gaustad's power-play goal with 13:51 left in the second period, one that included a pair of fights between Carcillo and Rivet. After the second bout, Rivet appeared to pull Carcillo's hair as the officials were pulling them apart.
An incensed Carcillo screamed at the referee and appeared to push him away. He received a 10-minute misconduct and the fighting penalty.
That left the Flyers with nine forwards, because they had lost Laperriere and Ross to first-period injuries.
Contact staff writer Sam Carchidi at 215-854-5181 or scarchidi@phillynews.com.
