Flyers win this battle

The Hurricanes awake from a sluggish start, but the on-ice scrapping fails to lead to a victory

Wade Brookbank of the Carolina Hurricanes and Josh Gratton of the Philadelphia Flyers started it, dropping the gloves barely two minutes into the game and flailing away.

No surprise. The two bruisers are known to throw punches for their teams.

But the second period ended with the Hurricanes' Rod Brind'Amour and the Flyers' Mike Richards going at it. The two team captains. That raised a few eyebrows, not to mention the noise level at the RBC Center.

It was just that kind of game Wednesday -- intense, physical, at times chippy -- before the Flyers won 3-1 for their sixth straight victory and extended the Canes' losing streak to three games.

A goal by defenseman Matt Carle early in the third period pushed the Flyers ahead 2-1 and proved to be the winner. Forward Simon Gagne, who scored the only first-period goal, assisted on Carle's goal, then had an empty-net goal in the final second.

"We have a team that can compete with anybody, that can beat anybody," Canes defenseman Dennis Seidenberg said. "But we have to play our game, and the last few games it's been just too much of a rollercoaster."

That's the message Carolina coach Peter Laviolette delivered in a testy closed-door meeting at the end of the first period. The Flyers led 1-0 and would have had more had goalie Cam Ward not made some big saves. Conversely, the Canes had one shot on goal and left the ice to boos.

"Every night seems to be a different set of circumstances," Laviolette said. "Tonight, there was clearly a reason we played the first period like a game of pond hockey.

"We were just not playing the game with any heart. One team wanted to win badly, and we did not.

Seidenberg noted that the Canes usually meet at the 10-minute mark of the break. But not this break.

"He sat us down at the beginning of the intermission and just told us to wake up," Seidenberg said.

The Canes did. Chad LaRose scored early in the second, crashing the net to beat Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki for a 1-1 tie -- the third straight game the feisty winger has had a goal.

"We changed our tune and competed at a much higher level," Laviolette said.

The Canes got an early power play in the third -- and a chance to take the lead -- when Scottie Upshall was penalized for high-sticking Sergei Samsonov. But Carolina's Eric Staal, injured early in the game, followed with a hooking penalty 13 seconds later.

It was four-on-four, and the Flyers turned a turnover into the winning goal.

With the Hurricanes on a two-on-one rush, defenseman Luca Sbisa alertly knocked away a pass by Seidenberg. Suddenly, the Flyers were going the other way on a two-on-one, and Carle scored at 2:05 for a 2-1 lead.

"I just tried to make a play to Tuomo [Ruutu], who was open, but I just couldn't raise the puck and [Sbisa] intercepted it," Seidenberg said.

Gagne, who missed much of last season with a concussion, has been on a scoring tear and is among the NHL leaders. But his first-period goal may have been his easiest of the season.

The Canes had killed off a penalty and were clustered around the puck in front of Ward. But the Flyers' Scott Hartnell got just enough of the puck to pop it through the crowd. Gagne, all alone to Ward's left, popped it in for his 11th goal of the season.

Matt Cullen assisted as the line of LaRose, Cullen and Ryan Bayda continued to the most productive in the past few games for the Canes, who lost forward Scott Walker to a lower-body injury in the first period.

"We played our game," LaRose said. "But we can't be doing that every game -- start playing after a bad 20 [minutes]. We need to come out of the gates strong."