Eric Lindros and Simon Gagne staked the Flyers to a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes, the seventh time in 10 games Toronto has trailed after the first period. How sluggish are the Leafs in the early going? They've held a lead at the first intermission just twice in 15 games.

  "We're missing something that causes us to start as slowly as we do," said Toronto coach-GM Pat Quinn. "A lot of the fault is we try to do too many things early in the game. A lot of individuals have made errors lately and that has cost us goals."

  Toronto had four power-play opportunities in the first period alone, yet were outshot 16-5 after 20 minutes. Mark Recchi scored the winning goal at 12:41 of the second period and Lindros got his second of the night for insurance with 1:46 remaining.

  Dmitri Khristich got his 10th goal of the season on a second-period backhand and Mats Sundin narrowed the margin to 3-2 with a breakaway goal at 8:34 of the third period.

  "We're almost too eager to get a lead in the first period," Sundin said. "We had so many power play chances, but didn't capitalize. We'll be fine if we cut down on our mistakes."

  Philadelphia moved to within four points of second-place Toronto in the Eastern Conference standings. The Flyers, who had just one win in nine games prior to the all-star break, also have three games in hand. Philadelphia killed off all seven Toronto power plays.

  "Our penalty killing won us the game, no question," said Flyers' coach Roger Neilson.

  "We did a great job defensively," said Flyers' rookie goalie Brian Boucher, who made 26 saves. "That's the thing with penalty killing. It's either going to kill you and you get energy off it. It gave us momentum tonight."

  Lindros opened the scoring at 16:02 of the first period on the power play when he fired a wrist shot from 35 feet over the glove hand of Curtis Joseph.

  Then with Toronto on the power play, Joseph stopped Gagne on a breakaway, but the puck looped through the air and fell down just across the goal-line with less than a second remaining.

  "We probably had double the amount of scoring opportunities they did," Neilson said. "We had a bigger edge than the score showed."

  Recchi was credited with the winning goal when his centring pass at 12:41 of the second period hit the stick of Joseph and went in to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Just 35 seconds earlier, Khristich got Toronto on the board when his backhand shot beat Boucher.

  Earlier Wednesday, Toronto traded left-winger Mike Johnson, minor-league defenceman Marek Posmyk, and fifth- and sixth-round draft picks in 2000 to the Tampa Bay Lightning for 24-year-old centre Darcy Tucker and a fourth-round draft pick in 2000.

  Johnson was Toronto's fastest skater, but had just 11 goals and 25 points in 52 games. Tucker is a more physical player and has 108 penalty minutes to go along with 14 goals and 34 points in 50 games.

  Defenceman Gerald Diduck made his season debut on the Maple Leafs' blue-line Wednesday. He was signed from Canada's national team as an unrestricted free agent Jan. 28. The 34-year-old played 14 shifts and a little more than 11 minutes and had one assist.

  Notes: Flyers' centre Keith Primeau played Wednesday despite fighting a stomach virus. His two assists gave him one goal and three points in five games since being acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes. . . Eric Lindros battled the flu during all-star weekend and slept most of Monday in Toronto before returning to Philadelphia Monday evening. He took the team charter back to Toronto on Tuesday.

Summary

-----------------------------
Philadelphia         2 1 1--4	 
Toronto              0 1 1--2	 
-----------------------------	 

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Philadelphia, Lindros 21 (power play)
(unassisted), 16:02. 2, Philadelphia, Gagne 11 (shorthanded) (Primeau),
19:59. Penalties: Recchi, Phi (high sticking), 3:28; Boucher, Phi served
by Samuelsson (Delay of game), 5:34; Khristich, Tor (interference), 8:38;
Mcgillis, Phi (boarding), 10:28; Antropov, Tor (high sticking), 14:44;
Recchi, Phi (Obstr hooking), 18:32.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Toronto, Khristich 10 (Diduck, Korolev),
12:06. 4, Philadelphia, Recchi 20 (Primeau, Desjardins), 12:41. Penalties:
Jones, Phi (unsportsmanlike conduct), 2:11; Domi, Tor (unsportsmanlike
conduct), 2:11; Mccarthy, Phi (Obstr hooking), 5:55; Mcgillis, Phi
(holding), 9:47; Jones, Phi (roughing), 9:47; Domi, Tor (roughing), 9:47.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 5, Toronto, Sundin 26 (unassisted), 8:34. 6,
Philadelphia, Lindros 22 (Jones, Mcgillis), 18:14. Penalties: Korolev, Tor
(tripping), 4:26; Desjardins, Phi (cross checking), 12:09; Domi, Tor
(interference), 12:09; Lindros, Phi (Obstr hooking), 13:41.

Shots on goal:
---------------------------------	 
Philadelphia         16 11 11--38
Toronto               5  8 15--28
---------------------------------	 

Power-play Conversions: Phi - 1 of 3, Tor - 0 of 7.  Goalies:
Philadelphia, Boucher (28 shots, 26 saves; record: 8-4-3). Toronto, Joseph
(38, 34; record: 25-13-6).  A:19,312.  Referees: Faucette, Roberts.
Linesmen: Driscoll, Scapinello.

                   INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

Philadelphia                          Toronto
               G   A   +/-  Shots                    G   A   +/-  Shots
A Burt         0   0   +1     0       Adams          0   0   -2     1
Andersson      0   0   even   1       Antropov       0   0   -1     2
C Berube       0   0   even   0       B Berard       0   0   even   1
Desjardins     0   1   -1     3       Clark          0   0   -1     4
Gagne          1   0   +1     3       Cross          0   0   even   2
Jones          0   1   +1     4       Di Yushkevich  0   0   -1     1
Langkow        0   0   even   2       Diduck         0   1   even   0
Leclair        0   0   even   1       Domi           0   0   even   0
Lindros        2   0   even   7       Hoglund        0   0   +1     3
M Bureau       0   0   even   1       Kaberle        0   0   even   1
Mccarthy       0   0   even   0       Karpovtsev     0   0   even   0
Mcgillis       0   1   +1     2       Khristich      1   0   +1     2
Primeau        0   2   +1     2       Korolev        0   1   +1     2
Recchi         1   0   -1     7       Markov         0   0   -1     1
Richardson     0   0   +1     2       Perreault      0   0   -1     1
Samuelsson     0   0   +1     0       Sundin         1   0   even   6
Therien        0   0   -1     2       Thomas         0   0   even   0
Zelepukin      0   0   even   1       Valk           0   0   -1     1
Hull           Knee Injury            Mccauley       Healthy
                                      Mcallister     Healthy
                                      Dempsey        Healthy
                                      S Berezin      Hamstring

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