Briere scores winner as Flyers burn Devils

PHILADELPHIA — Danny Briere had two chances to celebrate his overtime winner.

On bended knee: The Flyers' Danny Briere celebrates scoring against the Devils in Game 1 of their playoff series on Sunday in Philadelphia. The Flyers won 4-3. AP

The first time, his goal didn't count.

The second time, Briere left no doubt and put away Game 1, once and for all.

Briere continued to stamp his name alongside Philadelphia's postseason greats, scoring the winning goal 4:36 into overtime, leading the Flyers to a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday to open this Eastern Conference semifinal series.

"He has his ups and downs, but he just picks it up in the playoffs. And that's what matters," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "He's a guy who consistently gets it done."

Indeed, no Flyer is as clutch in the postseason as Briere.

His second attempt at the winner counted minutes after his earlier goal was overturned on review because he kicked the puck into the net. But he wasted no time making up for it, firing a slapper past Martin Brodeur for his seventh goal of the playoffs. Brodeur was screened in front by Philadelphia forward James van Riemsdyk.

"When you look at the replay, it's kind of obvious," Briere said of the reversal. "But I needed to stop pouting and get back my focus in overtime. I ended up getting a break."

In doing so, Briere, who also scored in the second period, now has 106 points in 104 career postseason games.

"Is it pressure? I think it's fun," he said of playoff hockey. "When I have the opportunity, like I've had the past few years here, I try to take advantage of the opportunities."

The Flyers took the series lead in their first game in a week after eliminating Pittsburgh in Game 6 last Sunday. The weary Devils, meanwhile, played their third consecutive overtime game after defeating Florida in Games 6 and 7 to win their first-round series.

"I thought we played real well in the first," New Jersey coach Peter DeBoer said. "We just couldn't keep it up."

The Flyers put a slow start well behind them in the third and completely set the pace. They used a tremendous forecheck to stave off the Devils and played with more life in their skates than a worn-down Devils team that had only a three-day break.

And then, there's Flyers forward Claude Giroux. The postseason's leading scorer got himself into the series, as well, in the third period. Giroux, in fact, wound from the circle and fired the puck high over Brodeur's right shoulder for a power-play goal and a 3-2 lead. It was Giroux's seventh goal of the postseason, perhaps living up to Laviolette's bold claim as, "the best in the world."

Veteran forward Petr Sykora wiped out the lead, though, when he raced past two defenders off a turnover and slipped the puck through Ilya Bryzgalov's pads for a soft goal to make it 3-3. It was his first playoff goal since 2008.

But Briere was the difference in overtime.

"I think," Laviolette said, "everyone expects it from him now."

Coyotes 5, Predators 3

In Glendale, Arizona, Shane Doan, Radim Vrbata and Antoine Vermette each had a goal and an assist, and Phoenix avoided its usual overtime theatrics, beating Nashville to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

Martin Hanzal and Taylor Pyatt also scored for the Coyotes. Ryan Suter, Patric Hornqvist and Andrei Kostitsyn scored for the Predators.

Phoenix scored three times on 19 second-period shots. The Coyotes built a two-goal lead early in the second period. Nashville twice cut it to one only to see Phoenix quickly respond.

The Coyotes did not go into overtime for only the second time in eight playoff games.

The best-of-seven series shifts to Nashville for Game 3 on Wednesday night.

Ray Whitney, who scored the game winner in Phoenix's 4-3 overtime win in Game 1 on Friday night, had two assists, as did Keith Yandle.

After being outshot 42-24 in Game 1, the Coyotes had a playoff-high 39 shots to Nashville's 33 in Game 2.

With its offensive production, Phoenix didn't need to lean on goalie Mike Smith's heroics quite so much. Smith had 30 saves to 34 for Predators goalie Pekka Rinne.

The Coyotes, in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the franchise moved from Winnipeg in 1996, built a 3-1 lead with goals by Hanzal and Vrbata early in the second period.

The Predators cut it to 3-2 when Hornqvist redirected Suter's shot into the net with 5 seconds left on a power play with 8:40 left in the second.

Thirty seconds later, Rinne deflected Doan's shot, but the puck bounced right to Pyatt, who scored to make it 4-2.

Again, Nashville came back.

The Predators took advantage of a 4-on-3 situation to score on Suter's shot from the left circle 53 seconds into the third period to cut the Coyotes' lead to 4-3.

Just 2:43 later, Phoenix responded. The Coyotes won a faceoff in the Nashville end, Vermette took a shot and Doan deflected it in to make it 5-3 with 16:24 remaining.

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