Flyers sweep Canes

PHILADELPHIA -- Cam Ward had the day off, or so he thought.

Rod Brind'Amour was about to score the tying goal, or so he thought.

In a season of unexpected twists, near-misses and all too many losses, the Carolina Hurricanes experienced it all again Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Canes lost 4-2 at the Wachovia Center in game in which Ward was forced to play when starting goaltender Manny Legace suddenly couldn't see, and Brind'Amour couldn't get the puck past Flyers goaltender Ray Emery in the final seconds.

"Just an inch here and an inch there," Ward said. "We had the opportunities."

With Carolina on a late power play, Brind'Amour found himself with the puck in front of the goal. The former Flyers forward, still a Philly favorite, had scored a power-play goal early the third period when Emery was caught behind the net and out of position, and he was poised to score another with 22 seconds left.

"But I didn't get it up, and then the rebound kind of stayed under [Emery's] pads," said Brind'Amour, who had a season-high seven shots in the game. "I've got to put that away. The game was there for us."

But the Flyers won it with Emery making 33 saves, 15 in the final period. They won it with Jeff Carter's two goals and an assist, with Chris Pronger's goal and assist.

Pronger scored on a slap shot through traffic three seconds into a power play late in the second period. Carter scored what would be the winner at 15:56 of the second, going unchecked in the slot to push the lead to 3-1, then adding an empty-netter at the end.

The Flyers (26-21-3), fighting for playoff position under coach Peter Laviolette, finished off a season sweep of the Canes. The Flyers are 12-0-3 in the past 15 games against Carolina - and Laviolette is 2-0 as Flyers coach against the team that fired him last season.

Talk about a sudden change. After 17 straight starts, Ward was given a day to rest as Legace made his first start since Dec. 12. But Legace has been bothered by conjunctivitis - "pink eye" - and had to be relieved by Ward 61/2 minutes into the game.

"That had to be tough for both of them," Canes forward Brandon Sutter said.

Legace faced seven shots, allowing an unassisted goal to Dan Carcillo at 3:05 of the first. Ward had 20 saves and is expected to start today against the Boston Bruins at the RBC Center, needing one victory to become the franchise leader in career wins.

The Canes, generally outplayed most of the first, drew a Flyers penalty late in the period and tied the score with 59.7 seconds left on Eric Staal's power-play score. That's four goals in two games for Staal since being made team captain, following his hat trick Thursday in the 5-2 road win over the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Canes (15-28-7) carried that momentum into the second, getting off the first eight shots of the period. But a hooking penalty at 14:08 on Patrick Dwyer was costly as Pronger scored three seconds after the Flyers won the power-play faceoff.

"We dominated the second period and had nothing to show for it except two goals against, which is a tough break," Ward said.

Brind'Amour's power-play goal early in the third made it 3-2, and the play then ebbed and flowed. The Flyers' Mike Richards failed on a penalty shot, and the Canes had their chances.

"There were a lot of real good things in our game, just none of them were sustained," Canes coach Paul Maurice said. "That's fair to say about both teams. ... Each goalie had to make some good saves."

During the final power play, after a slashing penalty on the Flyers' Braydon Coburn with 2:12 left, Maurice pulled Ward for an extra attacker.

Emery made the one mistake early in the third, going behind his net to play the puck and having Sergei Samsonov collect it and feed Brind'Amour, who had an open net. But Emery, now 5-0-0 in his career against Carolina, was big when it counted.

"He made a big save on me at the end and that was the difference," Brind'Amour said. "We had a decent game and probably deserved a little better."