Flyers lose, but pick up a point

BUFFALO - After Friday night's 4-3 overtime loss to Buffalo, the Flyers' locker room was church-quiet. Their losing streak had stretched to a season-high five games. No longer could they win the Eastern Conference.

But the truth is, they picked up a huge point and, led by Danny Briere, moved a step closer to their first Atlantic Division title since 2004.

Returning to the city where he became an established star, Briere scored a goal and added an assist, helping the Flyers move to within a victory of securing the division crown.

The Flyers are tied atop the Atlantic Division with Pittsburgh, which scored a 4-3 shootout win over the New York Islanders. The Flyers will win the division if they beat the Islanders on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

"We're still in good position in that we control our destiny for second place" in the conference and first in the division, Briere said. "But it's still frustrating."

"You have to have a short memory," said captain Mike Richards, whose team can finish second, third, or fourth in the conference. "We did a lot of good things tonight. Obviously, we're disappointed we didn't get the win, but we put ourselves in a position to win one game at home and win the division."

The Flyers haven't won at home since March 8, losing six straight there. They are 5-0 against the Islanders this season.

The loss, in front of a roaring crowd at the HSBC Arena, gave Washington the East title.

Thomas Vanek won it by scoring on a breakaway with 3 minutes, 44 seconds remaining in overtime. Buffalo clinched a playoff berth.

"How many breakaways are we going to give up?" Briere asked. "I think the most frustrating part is the way we started the game and [started] all three periods."

With 40 seconds left in regulation and the score tied at 3, the Flyers allowed the Sabres to pass the puck back and forth deep in the Buffalo defensive end for 25 seconds before making an attempt to take it away. Both teams wanted a valuable point. Buffalo knew it clinched a playoff berth with a point. The Flyers knew they would be closer to a division title with a point.

Finally, with about 15 seconds remaining, Scott Hartnell tried to take away the puck.

"When I went back to the bench, the guys were like, 'What are you doing?' " Hartnell said with a smile.

With 9:57 left in the third period, Buffalo had tied it, 3-3, on a goal that was, in a word, sensational.

Skating into the right circle with defenseman Danny Syvret guarding him tightly, Nathan Gerbe did a spin-a-rama and fired a backhander that beat Sergei Bobrovsky into the top left corner. It was his second goal of the night and 16th of the season.

Briere, who sat out the previous two games with a groin injury, was reunited with linemates Hartnell and Ville Leino. He scored against rookie Jhonas Enroth, who was replaced by Ryan Miller at the start of the third period and the Flyers leading, 3-2.

Trailing by 2-1 after a pair of Buffalo goals early in the second period, the Flyers responded with two quick scores.

Kris Versteeg started the comeback with a shorthanded goal, using Andrej Meszaros as a decoy on a two-on-one and beating Enroth with 12:23 left in the second period.

Just 39 seconds later, Briere took a spin-around pass from Hartnell - who may have been offside on the play - and scored from the left circle, giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead.

Briere gets an extra kick playing in Buffalo, where he was once a star and now gets booed whenever he touches the puck because he took the free-agency route to Philadelphia after the 2006-07 season.

The booing "is kind of fun now. To be honest, you enjoy it," Briere said before the game. "It means you're doing something good if they're booing you."

Hartnell, after Briere's slick feed from behind the goal line, one-timed the pass past Enroth from out front to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Briere has four assists and four goals in seven games in Buffalo since he joined the Flyers.