Flyers rout Ottawa for fifth straight win

The Flyers, just as they had promised, did a good job protecting Emery in his first appearance against Ottawa. They allowed only 23 shots and few good chances, pulling away from a 2-1 lead with three unanswered goals in the final period - two by Briere.

"I think you could see we played an amazing defensive game," said Emery, who called it a "fun game" to play. "The boys, I thought, were real mindful of that [his Ottawa past], and sacrificed a bit and then started to roll and buried our chances."

 Briere, who had missed four games with a leg injury, scored two goals for the 29th time in his career.

 "There was a lot of talk about him facing the Sens for the first time . . . and we're definitely happy for him," Briere said. "He's been playing well; he's been a great teammate for us, so it's good to give back to him."

Briere swatted in a midair rebound of a Jeff Carter shot to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead with 13 minutes, 4 seconds remaining, then skated nearly the length of the ice and scored from the right circle less than seven minutes later.

Van Riemsdyk, sidelined the last half of the previous game with a broken left pinkie, had given the Flyers a 2-1 lead on a power-play goal late in the second period. Blair Betts, the steady center, contributed his first goal as a Flyer, also on the power play.

The Flyers are 8-0 with Betts in the lineup.

Darroll Powe and Briere added insurance goals to finish off the 3-0 third-period blitz.

"I thought the first 40 minutes we played very well. I don't know if we could play much better on the road than that," Ottawa coach Cory Clouston said.

"We really talked about upping our intensity a little bit and upping our game in the third to put the team away," said van Riemsdyk, who has points in 10 of his 13 games.

Because of problems on and off the ice, Emery was released from Ottawa two seasons ago and, in effect, banished to Russia for a year when no NHL team wanted him.

Last night, thanks to his teammates, he gained sweet revenge.

Betts' first goal as a Flyer, on the power play, gave his team a 1-0 lead with 10:36 left in the second period.

The center got the puck behind the net and fired it out front, bouncing it off the stick and leg of Ottawa goalie Pascal Leclaire and into the net with five seconds remaining in the power play.

Earlier this season, Betts missed seven games because of a dislocated right shoulder.

"You play a half-dozen games or so, and you are kind of wondering when that first one is going to get in and you can start feeling good," said Betts, who is playing with a shoulder brace.

Ottawa's Mike Fisher scored on a power-play goal to tie the score, 1-1, with 5:01 left in the second period.

But the Flyers' power play, which is ranked No. 1 in the league, quickly added its second goal of the night.

"You can't just solely rely on the power play to win games, but it sure can help . . . and I thought that was the case tonight," coach John Stevens said.

About 11/2 minutes after Fisher's goal, van Riemsdyk took a brilliant pass from Carter (two assists) and scored his fourth goal of his impressive rookie season.

Carter streaked into the offensive zone and, as he neared the right goal line, collected the puck off the backboards and sent a blind pass to van Riemsdyk, who quickly whipped a shot into the net from the left circle. The goal was briefly vacated because Leclaire had slid over to contain Carter on the right and couldn't get back in time.

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Contact staff writer Sam Carchidi at 215-854-5181 or scarchidi@phillynews.com.