Stephen Weiss and Sean Bergenheim both scored, and Scott Clemmensen stopped 35 shots to lead the Florida Panthers to their fifth straight win, 2-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
Eric Wellwood scored for the Flyers.
Clemmensen was outstanding for the Southeast Division leaders and he outplayed counterpart Ilya Bryzgalov. Bryzgalov is one of the hottest players in the NHL, and was chosen as the NHL's first star for the second straight week. He had 11 saves.
Clemmensen put Bryzgalov on notice there will be some competition for the honor this week. He stopped all 11 shots in the first period to set the tone.
The Panthers snapped a five-game losing streak to the Flyers.
Bryzgalov was 8-0-1 with a 1.20 goals against average with four shutouts and a .960 save percentage to help the Flyers win three of four before Tuesday.
Bryzgalov got beat twice _ but it was tough to completely blame the resurgent Russian for both goals.
Left alone in the slot, Weiss scored his 18th of the season on a wrist shot high over Bryzgalov for a 1-0 lead in the first.
Both teams were aided by a couple of bounces in the second period.
The Panthers struck first, when the puck bounced off the boards, slid past Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn and right to Bergenheim. He was uncovered during the power play and easily punched in his 17th goal of the season.
The Panthers put another puck in the net, but this one helped the Flyers.
Wellwood's pass attempt to a charging Danny Briere ricocheted off Florida defenseman Ed Jovanovski's skate and straight into the net to make it 2-1.
Clemmensen, once considered the heir apparent to Martin Brodeur in New Jersey, improved to 12-6-5 this season. He held off a flurry of shots in the final minutes to make the lead stick. The Flyers went 0 for 4 on the power play.
He helped the Panthers win five straight games for the first time since their franchise-record seven-game winning streak in 2008.
Pittsburgh's 8-4 win over Winnipeg on Tuesday gave the Penguins a four-point lead over the Flyers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference
The Panthers bumped their lead to five points over Washington for first in the Southeast and kept their grasp on the third spot in the Eastern Conference. This is the latest the Panthers have been in first place.
With 10 games left, Florida (85 points) has already surpassed its point total for the last two seasons.
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