Schenn's swipe save helps Flyers win

PHILADELPHIA -- Brayden Schenn saw the puck slowly trickle toward the goal line, lunged at the last second and swiped it away.

The save of the game went to a guy known for his scoring.

Simon Gagne, Max Talbot and Claude Giroux scored goals to help the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Philadelphia goalie Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 18 shots, but Schenn prevented a tying goal in the third period.

"Big save! Big save!" Bryzgalov said.

Cody Hodgson's slap shot slipped behind Bryzgalov, but Schenn knocked it away before it crossed the goal line.

"I saw it squeak through," said Schenn, the team's third-leading scorer. "I don't know how close it was. I haven't seen the replay yet. But it's always good to help the goalie out."

The Flyers (12-14-1) snapped a three-game losing streak.

Brian Flynn and Jochen Hecht had Buffalo's goals. The Sabres (9-14-3) are winless in the past four games.

"We knew they were going to come out hard off a tough loss yesterday, and that's one thing we stressed before the game, and then we came out and we just didn't match it," Flynn said. "It's obviously disappointing. You know you have to come and compete every night for 60 minutes to win hockey games and we're 20 minutes short during the first period."

Down 3-1 in the third period, the Sabres got within one when Hecht scored a short-handed goal. A turnover by Giroux led to a 2-on-1 breakaway for Buffalo. Steve Ott took control of the puck, skated up ice and fed Hecht, who ripped a shot that hit Bryzgalov's glove and trickled in.

The Sabres would've scored again on the same penalty if it weren't for Schenn.

"Our playoff lives are on the line right now and it's going to take a lot to climb back in it," Schenn said. "We believe in this room that we can. And we still have a lot of hockey to be played. The schedule is not that hard in the next two weeks so it's good time for practice time, a little bit of rest and some games mixed in there as well. So, it's going to help us."

Perhaps inspired by a team meeting following a 3-0 loss at Boston on Saturday, the Flyers came out strong.

After Ryan Miller made excellent saves on Schenn and Jakub Voracek in the opening minute, Miller gave up a soft one when Gagne scored a power-play goal less than five minutes in to put Philadelphia up 1-0. Kimmo Timonen sent a long pass to Gagne ahead of the defense. Gagne took a few strides, sensed the defenders closing in and snapped a shot that went under Miller's arm.

Talbot made it 2-0 just over four minutes later. Ruslan Fedotenko stripped the puck away from Ott along the left side and started a 2-on-1 breakaway with Talbot, who was streaking down the center. Fedotenko's crossing pass was right on the tape, and Talbot lifted it in for his 15th career short-handed goal.

"Obviously when you go to kill a penalty the first thing you think is about actually killing it," Talbot said. "But when you have a chance to score, it's definitely a momentum boost for the team."

Flynn cut Buffalo's deficit to 2-1 midway through the first, putting a rebound past Bryzgalov. The Sabres took advantage of a mental blunder by the Flyers, who played a man short after a turnover in their own zone because nobody replaced Danny Briere as he came off the ice for a shift change.

"I think we started really slow," Ott said. "I thought we made a game of it, but in the end we had opportunities that we just didn't do well enough on."

Giroux gave the Flyers a 3-1 lead just 17 seconds into the second period. He took a pass from Timonen at center ice, skated past two defenders and fired a shot past Miller.

Miller stopped 25 of 28 Philadelphia shots.

NOTES: Bryzgalov made his 11th straight start and 25th in 27 games. ... Talbot's goal was Philadelphia's first short-handed tally this season and the fourth allowed by the Sabres. ... Buffalo's Tyler Ennis left the game after getting checked headfirst into the boards by Wayne Simmonds in the first period. Simmonds wasn't penalized. Mike Weber immediately went after Simmonds, and the two fought. ... Flynn has scored a goal in two straight games. ... The teams meet one more time this season, April 13 in Buffalo.