NHL Scores & More: Scott Gomez Scores A Goal; Flyers Top Leafs

Jason Spezza scored the game-winner, but in his 1,000th career game, defensive-defenseman Chris Phillips also contributed in a big way, scoring his first two goals of the season to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3. The win was huge for Ottawa, as it kept the Sens in playoff standing, holding the seventh seed, jumping ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who lost in Philadelphia Thursday night.

After Spezza and Gabriel Bourque traded goals for their teams in the first, the Senators regained the lead as Phillips put in his first goal on a three-on-two. Patric Hornqvist used the Preds' second power play opportunity to tie the game up again, but Spezza struck again on Ottawa's own man-advantage to go up, 3-2.

The magical moment where Phillips got his second goal, the Senators were on another power play, and after some sustained pressure, Pekka Rinne made a rare mistake in allowing a rebound for the even-rarer two-goal game for Phillips. Phillips' elation was priceless:

With Rinne pulled, Martin Erat scored with 8.6 seconds to go, but it was too late, as the Senators were able to enjoy a 4-3 win.

This game was Alex Auld's first start since Dec. 16 when Ottawa defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-4. While Craig Anderson has kept the Senators relevant all season, Ottawa was on a seven-game winless streak and Anderson probably needed the break.

Nashville is well-placed as the 5th seed in the West, two points behind the St. Louis Blues and five points out of first place in the division and overall behind the Detroit Red Wings.

As the Florida Panthers welcomed the Los Angeles Kings into the Bank Atlantic Center, the home crowd had one team on the ice, and another watching the out of town scoreboard. With the Panthers within two points of the Capitals for the Southeast Division lead, and within three points of the Maple Leafs for playoff seeding, the opportunity to get themselves above the playoff bar is captivating for a team who has not reached the postseason in 12 years.

For Los Angeles, a victory would have placed them into a potential tie with the Sharks for the Pacific Division lead, and the club was willing to try the same defense-first approach that allowed them to grind a victory out against the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier in the week.

With Jonathan Quick and Scott Clemmensen given the starting duties for their clubs, the first period saw the Kings dominate possession, but neither team was able to open their scoring until the second period, when the ice slowly began to tilt back in favor of the home team.

With a crush of bodies along the LA blueline, Marcel Goc brought the puck in and dropped it back to Sean Bergenheim, who fired a bullet through traffic to beat Quick.

With neither team unable to get much going due to repeated turnovers and disrupted passing, it seemed likely that the goal would stand as the only one allowed until Tomas Fleischmann dug into the corner for a loose puck as the second period wound down, passing up to Mike Santorelli at the right faceoff circle. Santorelli cradled the puck, then fired a hard shot to the top corner that bounced off of Quick's glove and into the net, giving the Panthers a 2-0 lead. The Kings only mustered a total of 14 shots on Clemmensen for the game after 40 minutes.

Surprisingly, Quick would not lead the Kings back out for the third period - head coach Darryl Sutter instead gave the net to backup netminder Jonathan Bernier, and Quick would watch the remainder of the game from the bench. Los Angeles and Florida media members asked if the potential Vezina candidate had injured himself, but the club refused to comment other than saying that Quick was healthy.

By midway through the third period, the Panthers still held a 2-0 lead and had been informed that the Capitals had fallen to the Winnipeg Jets in the shootout. The team began to turn up their aggression, looking to put the game away, but Bernier performed well, making several stops close in against Kris Versteeg and Stephen Weiss. As time wound down in regulation, the Kings finally broke through with less than three minutes to go after Drew Doughty pinched in on the play and took a centering pass from Anze Kopitar, hammering a quick shot into the net.

The goal gave Los Angeles a sudden infusion of life, and the Kings appeared to have Florida back on their heels when Bernier was called back to the bench in exchange for an extra attacker. The Panthers sent a few attempts back to slow the Kings, but could not complete a proper line change until an icing call against Mike Santorelli resulted in Sutter making the decision to use his timeout to plan a final push.

The call backfired, however, as the Panthers took the chance to catch their breath, winning the faceoff and heading up ice before Matt Bradley deposited the puck into the open cage to secure the win and put the Panthers into prime striking position as they look to return to the postseason.

Scott Hartnell scored his 26th goal of the season and added an assist, while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 of 27 shots to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers featured four different goal scorers in snapping a three-game losing streak.

Bobrovsky was pressed into starting duty when incumbent number one goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was scratched due to an illness earlier in the day.

With Philadelphia holding a wide margin in shots on goal for most of the opening period, Hartnell finally netted the game's first goal late in the first period. The winger batted an Erik Gustafsson shot waist-high out of mid air and past James Reimer for his team-leading 26th goal of the season, then proceeded to drop the gloves and fight Leafs' defenseman Dion Phaneuf.

It had to be a great relief for the Flyers to come out of a period in which they outshot the opposition, 16-5, and at least had potted a goal. Philly threw 45 shots at New York Islanders' netminder Evgeni Nabokov through regulation and overtime Tuesday night without denting the twine a single time.

But Philadelphia had little time to revel in their lead, as Tyler Bozak skated into the Flyers' zone along the right wing side, circled the net, and fired a shot off of defenseman Braydon Coburn's skate and between Bobrovsky's pads for his 11th goal of the season to tie the score at 1-1 at the 54 second mark of the middle frame. Bobrovsky was partially off balance after Coburn had fallen into him and really didn't have a chance to make a save.

The Flyers regained the lead less than three minutes later when Maxime Talbot deflected a point shot by Andrej Meszaros and by Reimer for his 13th of the year to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead.

Ex-Flyer Joffrey Lupul evened the score again at the 5:57 mark when he deposited a rebound of a Phaneuf power play point shot past Bobrovsky for his 22nd of the season.

The see-saw second continued, as Philadelphia's leading scorer, Claude Giroux, ripped a shot from the slot past Reimer's blocker side off of a perfect Hartnell feed from behind the net for his 21st of the year to stake the Flyers to a 3-2 lead at 13:53. It was Giroux's third goal in his last five games.

This time, though, Philadelphia would build on their lead instead of coughing it up. Just 1:14 after Giroux's tally, Danny Briere sent a hard shot from the right faceoff circle that bounced off of Reimer and to the opposite side of the net. Brayden Schenn gathered the puck and fired a shot that eluded the Toronto goalie for his sixth of the year, giving the Flyers a two-goal lead at 4-2 with 4:53 left in the middle stanza.

The Maple Leafs scored in the last two minutes of the period, as Bozak roofed his second of the night and 12th of the season following a furious netmouth scramble in which Bobrovsky was forced to make several stops before Bozak hit the top shelf. The goal cut the Philly's lead to 4-3 after two.

The Leafs outshot the Flyers in the third, 10-9, and had a golden opportunity when Talbot went off for boarding Phaneuf with just 2:07 remaining in regulation, then pulled Reimer to have a six-on-four manpower advantage. But Toronto could not solve Bobrovsky for the equalizer, as the Flyers held on to break their three-game losing skid.

The triumph was made even more important from a Philadelphia standpoint when considering that the Leafs could have pulled to within just three points of the Orange-and-Black for the first time in almost two months with a regulation win. Toronto dropped to eighth place after the Ottawa Senators won and jumped a point ahead of them.