PHILADELPHIA - Peter Forsberg tied the score in the final minute of regulation and Joni Pitkanen scored early in overtime to lead the Flyers to a 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
Only 49 seconds away from their second straight loss, Forsberg scored his first goal of the season. After missing a penalty shot that could have tied it minutes earlier, Forsberg knocked one past Roberto Luongo after the Flyers pulled goalie Robert Esche.
Forsberg, the free-agent center who was the centerpiece of a major roster reshuffling, pumped his fists and was mobbed by his teammates.
"I'm happy with the goal and I finally got it out of the way," said Forsberg, who went seven games without one. "It got kind of annoying to not score for a long time."
The celebration resumed 1:13 into overtime when Pitkanen scored from the left side.
PENGUINS 7, THRASHERS 5: Mario Lemieux scored twice during a five-point night and host Pittsburgh rallied from a four-goal deficit.
Down four halfway through the first period, the Penguins stormed back with a team record-tying six power-play goals.
The Penguins, in danger of a blowout loss after Ilya Kovalchuk scored once and set up three goals in the opening 9:50, needed 10 games for their first victory, the longest stretch in franchise history.
All but one of the Penguins' seven consecutive goals against goalie Steve Shields in his first start of the season came with a man advantage. Atlanta, which faces the Lightning on Saturday, signed Shields and sent goaltender Michael Garnett to the minors.
AVS 6, CANUCKS 2: Milan Hejduk scored his 200th career goal to help Colorado to a victory over Vancouver and Todd Bertuzzi, who was booed all night in his first game in Denver since breaking Avalanche forward Steve Moore's neck.
Pierre Turgeon scored twice for the Avs to reach 499 for his career.
Bertuzzi is a pariah in Denver for the shot he delivered on Moore in a game late in the 2003-04 season.
Two fans dressed in orange prison jumpers with Bertuzzi's No. 44 heckled him during warmups. Other fans wore fake neck braces. Next to them were fans wearing horizontal-striped uniforms and sitting behind homemade cardboard jail bars and a sign that said they were dressing up like Bertuzzi for Halloween. And, a fan dumped a beer on a woman in the stands wearing a Bertuzzi uniform.
"It is what it is," Bertuzzi said, time and again when asked for his thoughts on the evening.
RANGERS 3, ISLANDERS 1: Jaromir Jagr assisted on a pair of first-period goals and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 31 shots for the host Rangers.
The Rangers killed all 11 penalties called against them, and Lundqvist made a game-saving stop on Robert Nilsson's shot with 2:19 left.
Blair Betts scored his second goal of the season into an empty net at 19:29 to complete the scoring.
The first-place Rangers moved three points ahead of the third-place Islanders in the Atlantic.
RED WINGS 5, BLACKHAWKS 2: Manny Legace made 21 saves in becoming the first NHL goalie to win 10 games in a month and Mathieu Schneider scored twice for host Detroit. Schneider's power-play goal broke a tie at 2 with 8:02 left. He scored on a slap shot from the point while Brent Seabrook was in the penalty box for interference.
SENATORS 4, CANADIENS 3: Jason Spezza scored 2:48 into overtime for host Ottawa.
Jose Theodore stopped 38 shots, including a lunging glove save on Chris Neil with 2:04 left in regulation to allow the Canadiens to earn a point after Senators forward Antoine Vermette tied it 3:39 into the third.
After failing to score on the man advantage in the first, when each team was assessed one minor penalty apiece, the teams combined for four power-play goals in the second when nine minors were called. Ottawa went 2-for-6 with the man advantage in the second while Montreal scored twice in three opportunities.
BRUINS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1: Hannu Toivonen made 36 saves and host Boston got its first Northeast Division victory of the season. Jiri Slegr's power-play goal with 5:09 left in the first period snapped the Bruins' 0-for-11 drought on the power play against the Leafs and marked the fourth time in 12 games that Boston scored first.
BRUINS: Goaltender Andrew Raycroft will be out for a week with a strained hamstring sustained in Wednesday's loss to Carolina.
DEVILS: Goaltender Martin Brodeur has a sprained knee, but is not expected to miss an extended period of time.[Last modified October 28, 2005, 01:36:14]
