TORONTO -- The Philadelphia Flyers extended their dominance over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Michal Handzus, Kim Johnsson and Justin Williams scored in the first eight minutes of the first period, leading the Flyers' 7-1 rout of the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
"We caught them on an off night," Philadelphia's Jeremy Roenick said. "We really came out and played hard. We knew it was going to be a battle and we prepared ourselves well."
The loss was especially embarrassing to the Maple Leafs, who were eliminated by the Flyers in the first round of last season's playoffs. Philadelphia beat Toronto 6-1 in Game 7 of that series.
The Maple Leafs, losers of three straight, were booed heartily throughout.
"I wish I could explain it. I'm quite disappointed," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "I'd even like to think there was an effort, but there wasn't a whole lot of thinking out there. The harder we tried the more mistakes we made."
Fans jeered goalie Ed Belfour after he stopped a puck shortly after allowing the fifth Philadelphia goal. He faced 22 shots.
"We had very little confidence at the back end. We played like we didn't want the puck and when you play like that you can't win," Quinn said. "We're not believing in each other right now. We're not playing as a team."
Sami Kapanen and Roenick scored twice for the Flyers, who rebounded from a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
Handzus stood alone in front of the net for several seconds before putting his own rebound past Belfour at 4:25 of the first.
Johnsson scored on a slap shot about two minutes later, and Williams scored after Toronto's Gary Roberts turned the puck over at the blue line. Williams skated in on a partial breakaway and deked Belfour before scoring to give the Flyers a 3-0 lead at 7:49.
Kapanen batted a puck past Belfour at 6:09 of the second after two Maple Leafs defenders allowed Kapanen to stand in front.
"They are having a tough time right now. They have a lot of great veterans. I'm sure they'll bounce out of it," Kapanen said.
Toronto's Darcy Tucker cut it to 4-1 at 7:06 of the second, but Roenick scored an unassisted goal just over three minutes later. Kapanen made it 6-1 at 5:48 of the third.
Roenick scored his fifth goal of the season with 1:52 left.
"We didn't get the puck out of our zone. All 20 guys weren't good enough on the little things," Toronto defenseman Ken Klee said. "They are a team that thrives on turnovers."
Philadelphia's Robert Esche made 20 saves, including several impressive stops during a two-man Toronto advantage in the second period.
Notes
- The Maple Leafs honored Hall of Fame inductees Grant Fuhr, Pat LaFontaine, Mike Ilitch and Brian Kilrea in a pregame ceremony. Lafontaine had 468 goals and 1,013 points in parts of 15 seasons in the NHL. Fuhr, the first black player to be inducted, won five Stanley Cups as a goalie for the Edmonton Oilers. Ilitch is the owner of the Detroit Red Wings, who have won three Stanley Cup titles under his watch. Kilrea is in his 27th year as the coach of the Ottawa 67's junior hockey team. They will be inducted on Monday.
- Philadelphia outshot Toronto 12-4 in the first, but the teams each finished with 22. The Flyers recorded four shots in the third period and scored twice.
- Quinn said Nik Antropov, who has a separated shoulder, won't require surgery.
AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved
