Hanson And Leafs Foiled by Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers (42-25-10) are back in fourth place after an 8-5 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jeff Carter's first hat trick led the way for the Flyers, and spoiled Chrstian Hanson's debut with the Leafs.
 
Danny Briere had a goal and three assists for the Flyers. They also got goals from Simon Gagne, Randy Jones, Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell.

Carter now has 44 goals this season, second to the Washington Capital's Alex Ovechkin.

The Flyers now have 94 points, one ahead of Carolina, with a game in hand.

The Flyers were up 6-0 in the second period, until the last four minutes. Luke Schenn, Boyd Devereaux and Mikhail Grabovski scored for the Leafs so the second period ended with the score 6-3.

Nikolai Kulemin and Jamal Mayers scored for Toronto in the third.

Toronto won the first game of their home-and-home series with the Flyers 3-2 on Wednesday.

Martin Gerber was replaced by Curtis Joseph in the Toronto net after allowing three goals on nine shots. It was Gerber's first game back after a three-game suspension for making contact with officials, and shooting a puck at a referee after the shoot out in Toronto's last game against Washington.

Joseph gave up two goals on five shots and returned to the bench for the start of the second period.

Two fights broke out in the final minute of the first period, but that was it for the night that Christian Hanson had his first game as a Leaf.

Hanson had over 17 minutes of ice time, which is a lot. He was a minus one, had one shot, a couple of misses, a couple of his shots were blocked, he blocked a shot and he was charged with a couple of giveaways.

Hanson played on the Leafs' second line with John Mitchell and Jason Blake, and saw time on the power play too.