FLYERS NEWS

The Flyers unbeaten streak to start the season is over before it even started. The Flyers fell to Edmonton tonight 5-3. As luck would have it, former Flyers Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson dealt the crushing blows to their old team tonight, well sort of. Sanderson scored two goals on the night, including an empty netter with under a minute that put it way for the Oilers. Pitkanen, well, he just got lucky. Jeff Carter, Daniel Briere, and Simon Gagne scored the Flyer's 3 goals. Initially it was a back and forth game. Edmonton lead 1-0 early in the 2nd period, then the Flyers tied it at 1-1. Minutes later Edmonton went back ahead 2-1, but the Flyers tied it again at 2. Then Daniel Briere found Gagne open in front of the net for a 3-2 Flyers lead, their only lead of night. It didn't last long as Sanderson scored to tied it at 3 with just 4.8 seconds left in the period. Then just a minute into 3rd period Pitkanen slapped at a puck behind the Flyer's net. In his haste to clear it, Mike Knuble, hustled back and accidentally tipped into his own goal. Since he was the last Oiler to touch it, Pitkanen was credited with the goal and Edmonton went ahead 4-3. Yes he was indeed very lucky. The Flyers never really recovered from Knuble's gaffe, but the dazzling goaltending of Martin Biron, with 29 saves, kept the Phils in it until there was under a minute to go. The Flyers then pulled him from the game in an effort to get the equalizer, but it was for naught and Sanderson scored on the empty net to put it away at 5-3. So the Flyers are now 1-1, which is still, better than they were last year, so they'll just have to regroup and win the next one.