Richards scores two more in Flyers' win over Sens

Mike Richards is carrying one hot stick.

The Philadelphia Flyers' captain scored two goals for the second straight game, and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 shots to lead his surging squad to a 5-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.

Danny Briere, Darroll Powe and Claude Giroux also scored for the Flyers, who are 9-0-1 in their past 10 games, and haven't lost in regulation since losing a lackluster 2-1 game to Columbus on Oct. 25, a defeat that stoked the ire of coach Peter Laviolette. 

The Flyers have played inspired hockey since that loss to the Blue Jackets last month. Ottawa came into Philadelphia on a hot streak of its own with a 5-1-0 record in its past six games.

Richards is the hottest Flyer at the moment. He scored five goals in his previous three games, including a two-goal game on Nov. 13 against the Florida Panthers . He had just one goal in his first 12 games. The Flyers took a season-high 46 shots.

"We are starting to get a lot of the bounces. In the beginning of the year, there was a lot of posts and pucks just seemed to be slipping off sticks," Richards said. "You are going to have that in a year, where you can't seem to find a balance then you have stretches where pucks just end up on the sticks so that's a big part in it."

Richards earned his 300th career point on Giroux's goal, which came via the power play in the third period. He partially whiffed on his pass to Giroux in the slot, but the right wing gathered it and fired a shot past a screened Brian Elliott.

"The power play goal was the killer. You know, any of the energy that we created early in the period and late in the first had just seemed to go away when we took four straight penalties," Sens coach Cory Clouston said. "Whether they are all penalties or not, everyone has their own opinion. We thought there could've been a couple calls, at least somewhere in between there, to break up some of their momentum and give us a little bit."

Richards scored twice in a 90-second span in the third period to put the game away. He first scored at 6:13 on an unassisted shorthanded goal, getting past the defense and faking Elliott with a backhand-to-forehand move. He then took a Braydon Coburn shot off the boards and flicked it into the net at 7:43 to cap the scoring.

Briere opened the scoring for Philadelphia at 8:43 of the first period, when he redirected Andrej Meszaros' wide shot into the left corner of the net and past Elliott, who had his personal five-game winning streak snapped.

Briere's ninth goal of the season leaves him tied for second on the team with Jeff Carter, behind Giroux's 10.

"Confidence is a big thing, it seems we're building chemistry, we're feeling better and better with each other," Briere said. "It's been a lot of fun, I know it's not going to last the whole season but we'll try to take advantage of it while it's going and while guys are feeling hot with their stick."

Spezza tied the game nearly two minutes later, shooting the puck past Bobrovsky, after it went off the skate of Flyers defenseman Matt Carle. Spezza maintained his point-per-game average, and has six goals and eight assists in 14 games this season.

Kimmo Timonen and Powe combined to retake the lead at 12:17 of a penalty-less first period. Timonen's shot from the blue line was deflected by Powe's stick in the air, then bounced off the ice and over Elliott's shoulder.

Material from wire services and team media was used in this report.