Carter scores twice as Flyers win

There was a joyous pregame celebration at the Wells Fargo Center Monday night as the Flyers - and a loud sellout crowd - celebrated the unfurling the Eastern Conference championship banner.

About 21/2 hours later, they were still celebrating.

Jeff Carter's second goal of the game propelled the Flyers to a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. He scored on a bad-angle shot near the goal line on the left, close to the same spot where Patrick Kane scored to give Chicago the Stanley Cup in June.

Carter's goal with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left snapped a 2-2 tie, and Darroll Powe secured the win with an empty-net score.

It was the first home game of the season for the Flyers, who are off to a 2-0-1 start.

In the opening minute of the third period, Colorado winger Milan Hejduk tied the score at 2 as his left-circle shot trickled past Sergei Bobrovsky (2-0).

The Flyers went on a power play when Brandon Yip hooked James van Riemsdyk as he tried to get a shot off while skating in front of the net with 5:40 left in the period. But the power play went to 1 for 14 on the young season as it generated few opportunities during the two-minute advantage.

The Flyers were playing their first meaningful home game since Kane's overtime goal enabled the Blackhawks to skate around South Philly rink, then known as the Wachovia Center, with the Stanley Cup after a 4-3 win on June 10.

After committing 15 penalties Saturday in St. Louis, the Flyers received an earful from coach Peter Laviolette.

Oddly, though, the Flyers were at their best Monday after they went to the penalty box.

Colorado had two first-period power plays, but the it was the Flyers who took advantage.

Claude Giroux scored on a shorthanded breakaway, and Carter scored on a breakaway after he stole the puck with one second left on Colorado's power play. Both players scored on backhanders that they roofed into the net, enabling the Flyers to carry a 2-0 lead into the second period.

Giroux, who is emerging as one of the league's best stickhandlers, had not scored a shorthanded goal in the first 126 games of his NHL career.

Now he has two in the first three games of the season.

Taking a pass from Mike Richards, Giroux beat goalie Craig Anderson after a breathtaking backhand-forehand-backhand move with 7:47 left in the opening period.

"That goal was all [Richards]," Giroux said. "I was able to be in a pretty good position. He was able to tip the puck to me on the breakaway, and I made a little move and it worked. . . . I was pretty lucky to get that puck up."

Later in the period, with Richards in the penalty box for slashing, Carter intercepted a drop pass from David Jones to Ryan Wilson at the Flyers' defensive blue line. He skated in alone and lifted the puck over Anderson with 2:27 to go in the period. Technically, it was not a shorthanded goal as it was scored four seconds after Richards' penalty expired.

Colorado, which opened the season with a 4-3, overtime win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks, converted a turnover into a goal to slice the deficit to 2-1 midway through the second period.

John-Michael Liles intercepted a Scott Hartnell pass and fed Yip, whose turnaround shot from in front beat Bobrovsky, the rookie goalie who was making his second start in the first three games.

Bobrovsky, who was solid in the Flyers' 3-2, opening-night win Thursday in Pittsburgh, made 17 saves in the first two periods. His best stop came just before the second-period buzzer sounded as he turned aside defenseman Scott Hannan's shot from the right circle.