With win over Panthers, it's easy to find Flyers atop conference standings

SUNRISE, Fla. - In Florida's Bank Atlantic Center, the out-of-town scoreboard is hard to find.

It is nestled in a blurry digital ribbon that wraps around the top of the lower bowl. After all, the Panthers - about to set an NHL record for the longest playoff drought by a franchise in one city - haven't had much of a use for it in the last 10 seasons come March.

The Flyers' Danny Briere said he looked for one but couldn't find it.

That didn't stop his coach from finding the latest scores. Just minutes after walking off the bench, one of the first things Peter Laviolette sought out were the most up-to-date standings.

"They all won," Laviolette said. "All of them."

Scoreboard-watching is an annual rite of passage in baseball in September. But that isn't always the case in hockey for the first-place team - the team that has held the Eastern Conference lead since Jan. 4 - to be looking over its shoulder.

After watching their eight-point lead dwindle down to just one heading into last night's action, that is the Flyers' new reality.

With a loss to the puck-hungry Panthers, the Flyers would have dropped to second place in the conference, as Washington picked up their ninth straight win in Montreal. Instead, the Flyers - under siege and clinging to a scant one-goal lead - hung on for a 3-2 win.

Despite wins from Washington, Boston and Pittsburgh, the Flyers still sit in the driver's seat with 13 games to play. And they kept their cool in an intense third period.

"Teams have obviously pressed up on the back side of us," Laviolette said. "They all won. You've got to keep winning games. It was a tight game. I thought it was a good road win for us. I really liked our game tonight.

"We really didn't give up a whole lot, probably not [more than] seven or eight chances."

For those watching, last night's third period seemed eerily similar to so many others over last 3 weeks. The Flyers posted just four shots on net. At first glance, Florida collected just three more shots, for a total of seven.

The stat sheet showed that the Flyers blocked a total of nine attempts in the third period alone and the Panthers had another eight that missed the net entirely.

But the play on the ice showed that the Flyers finally seemed comfortable defensively under pressure and in control.

"They were in our zone a lot, but I thought we did a great job blocking shots," said Brian Boucher, who stopped 20 of 22 shots. "They got some chances, but they didn't get any shots on goal. We were either blocking them or forcing them wide.

"That's been our bread and butter all year. If a team's going to get chances, they're going to have to earn it."

The game might have had a different script if James van Riemsdyk's double-minor high-sticking penalty halfway through the third period hadn't been negated by Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov's hooking call.

"I think we got a break there when they took a penalty," Boucher said. "I don't think we want to be killing 4 minutes right there in the third period. That could've been trouble. But we caught a break. They helped us out big time."

Van Riemsdyk accounted for three of the Flyers' four penalties in the game, racking up 8 minutes in the box.

Jeff Carter scored twice in a span of less than 11 minutes in the second period to turn the Flyers' 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 edge. It was Carter's second two-goal game in his last four contests.

His first goal of the night came just 7 seconds after Laviolette signaled for timeout. After being forced to remain on the ice because of an icing call, Laviolette called the timeout to give Carter and Briere some extra rest.

"They were gassed," Laviolette said.

Briere sprung through the Flyers' zone on the ensuing faceoff and dished to Carter for a one-time goal on a two-on-one rush.

" 'Lavi' looks like a genius every time," Carter said with a laugh.

Genius or not, Laviolette seems to know just where his team stands at all times. And that includes in the standings, just minutes after the game. In an attempt to right their wrongs on a three-game road swing, the Flyers started it out on the right foot.

"We obviously don't want to be in our own zone like that," Carter said. "But I thought we did a good job winning most of the battles. That ends up in wins."

And a little more breathing room.

Peter Laviolette said call-up Erik Gustafsson will see action on this road trip so the Flyers can "get him some experience." Look for Nick Boynton, who played just 5 minutes and was a minus-2, to be scratched to make room . . . The Flyers signed defenseman Oliver Lauridsen, a seventh-round pick from 2009, to an entry-level contract. Lauridsen, 21, recently completed his junior season at St. Cloud State. The Denmark native played three seasons of junior hockey in Sweden before jumping to the NCAA . . . Mike Richards picked up his 40th assist of the season, making the Flyers one of six teams to have two players with 40 assists. Claude Giroux has 43.

For more news and analysis, read

Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

www.philly.com/FrequentFlyers.