O'Donnell sparks Flyers to win over Sabres with his fists

IT STARTED the same way Monday's abysmal night in Columbus ended for the Flyers.

Then, Sean O'Donnell decided he had seen enough.

Only 21 seconds after Buffalo scored the game's first goal, less than 9 minutes into the first period, O'Donnell dropped the gloves with Cody McCormick to spark his team. He did more than just enliven the 19,361 inside the Wells Fargo Center.

O'Donnell's scrap roused the Flyers' offense and power play out of a lifeless slump, and they went on to a 6-3 win over the Sabres.

"I think the game switched right around then," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said of O'Donnell's fisticuffs. "We were a little sluggish in the first 5 minutes of the first period. For me, that seemed to be the turning point right there.

"It brought a little energy to the building, a little energy to the bench. From there, we were able to play good hockey."

It was the first win of the season for the Flyers (4-4-1) in which the opponent had scored first.

O'Donnell's fight is proof that sometimes there is a place for fighting in hockey. Not only can it act as a way for players to police themselves, but it can also be a built-in shot of adrenaline.

Last night's was O'Donnell's 108th fighting major of his NHL career.

And it didn't happen by accident. O'Donnell played in his 1,100th career NHL game on Monday night. McCormick just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

"Different guys contribute in different ways," O'Donnell said. "I thought the time was right to try to do something. I didn't want to take a penalty or do anything silly, but once they scored, and I saw who was on the ice, there was a chance we could get the crowd going and get our bench going."

Danny Briere scored on an ensuing power play, 6 minutes after O'Donnell's fight, and the Flyers never looked back. The Flyers were 3-for-5 on the power play after entering the game with the league's sixth-worst efficiency, having connected on three of their previous 35 opportunities.

"For me, the power play had been showing good life," Laviolette said. "They had been showing good life the last couple of games. You'd like to score more, certainly, than we did. But I thought there seemed to be some good movement, some consistency, some attack there.

"A lot of times when your power play is struggling, you start to see that life first and then you see the results. I think the results finally came."

For the Flyers, not only was the result different from Monday's 2-1 loss to the Blue Jackets, so was the effort. Laviolette had called out his players after the game on Monday, and the Flyers said it helped to get right back on the ice just 24 hours later.

"It was a pretty quiet plane ride back [Monday] night," O'Donnell said. "I think a lot of us had pride. We knew this was a [Buffalo] team that was waiting for us here [Monday] night. They didn't play [Monday]. I think the guys were anxious to get out there. Anytime you play a poor game, you want to play as soon as you can to get back in the good graces."

Nik Zherdev added his second goal as a Flyer on a beautiful play to make it 2-1. But Claude Giroux' selfless play stole the show. Giroux set up Darroll Powe alone in front of Ryan Miller after dancing through three defenders. It was only fitting that Giroux was credited with the game-winner, an unassisted tally off a faceoff.

Jeff Carter pushed the lead to 5-1 just 38 ticks into the third period, but Buffalo added two goals - which caused Laviolette to call a timeout - before Andreas Nodl iced it with an empty-netter.

"Once it was 5-1, it slipped away a little bit and we had to reel it back in a little bit," Laviolette said.

It wasn't perfect - like many an October night in the 82-game season - but the Flyers showed a sign of life that was desperately missing on Monday.

"The good news is, I don't think any of us are happy with the way we've played the first nine games, but we're still .500," O'Donnell said. "It's in this room. It's just a matter of righting the ship."

Danny Briere found out yesterday he had an unlikely fan - a member of the opposing team. Sabres forward Tyler Ennis told the Buffalo News this week Briere was his favorite player growing up.

Ennis, 21, grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, but, as a scrappy 5-9 forward, saw similarities between himself and Briere, who spent four seasons in Buffalo.

"I guess that really does make me feel old," a surprised Briere said.

Ennis scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game last year . . . against the Flyers. Last year's AHL Rookie of the Year and All-Star Game MVP is off to a hot start, with nine points in 12 games this season with the Sabres.

Last night capped off the Flyers' first set of back-to-back games this year, with the Flyers earning a split after Monday's loss in Columbus. They have another set coming up later this week: in Pittsburgh on Friday and at home Saturday against the Islanders . . . Dan Carcillo was healthy scratch with Andreas Nodl back in the lineup . . . With six goals, Danny Briere is off to his best start in a season since 2005-06, when he had seven goals in nine games.

For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

http://go.philly.com/frequentflyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.