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PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- With Eric Lindros at his dominating best,
the Philadelphia Flyers muscled their way to the top of the Eastern
Conference.
|  | | Philadelphia's Eric Lindros, left, scores his first goal of the game as Toronto's Dimitri Yushkevich tumbles over goalie Glenn Healy and Andy Delmore charges the net. |
The Philadelphia captain scored three goals as the Flyers beat
Toronto 4-2 Thursday night to move a point ahead of the Maple
Leafs in the conference standings.
"Eric was the dominating force out there," Philadelphia coach
Roger Neilson said. "He was hitting, scoring a power-play goal,
killing penalties, taking faceoffs. He did it all tonight. So when
your captain does that, it's great for the team."
"I don't know about dominance, but he had a heck of a game,"
Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "He's a big strong guy and he's got
skill on top of it."
John Vanbiesbrouck made 27 saves, and John LeClair added a goal
for the Flyers. Philadelphia has won four straight, and is 6-0-1 in
its last seven games.
"It was a good win for us, no question about that," LeClair
said. "As a team we're a little disappointed the way we played
that third period. We tended to play a little conservative. We were
hanging back a little bit and they have some good skaters who took
advantage of that."
Mats Sundin and Tie Domi scored goals early in the third period
for the Maple Leafs, who entered the game 4-0-1 in their last five
games. Toronto is 0-5-2 in its last seven road games.
"I like the effort we put forth," Toronto's Garry Valk said.
"When you're playing a team like Philly you're not going to
outmuscle them, you're not going to outbang them, so you've got to
outsmart them."
Lindros scored twice in the first period to give the Flyers a
2-0 lead. The first came when he poked in a rebound during a
scramble in front of the net at 13:35.
Then at 17:37, Lindros, standing to the left of the crease on a
power play, redirected an attempt by Mark Recchi past goalie Glenn
Healy.
LeClair made it 3-0 at 3:38 of the second period and narrowly
missed another goal when he hit the post.
LeClair scored when he swept the puck off the left boards in
Philadelphia's defensive zone, skated to the top of the left circle
and ripped a slap shot that deflected off Toronto's Steve Thomas
past Healy.
Sundin, who leads the Maple Leafs with 25 points and 14 goals,
scored unassisted at 1:52 of the third period, slipping a wrist
shot between Vanbiesbrouck's legs from left of the net.
Sundin then fed Domi, who scored his first goal of the season by
flipping the puck into the net at 6:13.
But Lindros capped off the 11th regular-season hat trick of his
career with 1:06 left, firing a slap shot from top of the left
circle high over Healy.
Recchi, had two assists to extend his point-scoring streak to
eight games. He has four goals and nine assists during that span.
Toronto was 0-for-4 on the power play to run their string of
futility to 0-for-19, including 11 seconds of a two-man advantage
in the first period.
The teams meet again in Saturday in Toronto.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Toronto Clubhouse
Philadelphia Clubhouse
RECAPS
Edmonton 2
Boston 2
Montreal 4
NY Islanders 2
Philadelphia 4
Toronto 2
Pittsburgh 3
Washington 0
New Jersey 4
Chicago 0
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Eric Lindros scores on the wrap-around goal.
avi: 619 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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