Dennis Seidenberg

Dennis Seidenberg scored his second goal of the game in overtime last night to lift the Phantoms to a 4-3 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in an AHL game at the Wachovia Spectrum. Jon Sim and Boyd Kane also scored, while Wade Skolney added a pair of assists as the Phantoms won for the sixth time in their last eight games. Starting for the 17th time in the last 18 games, goalie Antero Niittymaki stopped 13 of 16 shots for the win. The Phantoms led deep into the final period, but Chris Campoli scored for Bridgeport at the 15-minute, 42-second mark to make it 3-3. On the decisive play in overtime, Sim took a feed from John Slaney and offered a crossing pass to an oncoming Seidenberg, who netted it for his fifth game-winner of the year, tops among AHL defensemen.

Patrick Sharp and Tony Voce each had a goal and two assists to lead the Phantoms past the Hershey Bears, 4-3, last night in the AHL. Dennis Seidenberg added a goal and an assist and Antero Niittymaki made 22 saves for the Phantoms, who won their fourth straight home game, in front of a crowd of 8,425. The Phantoms picked up their eighth win in their last 11 games, but remained one point behind first-place Binghamton in the East Division. "We lost a game in Binghamton [Wednesday]

The Phantoms clinched a berth in the American Hockey League playoffs last night and took over first place in the East Division with a 4-2 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the Wachovia Spectrum. Dennis Seidenberg collected a goal and three assists. R.J. Umberger and Ben Stafford contributed two points apiece. Umberger has 12 points in his last eight games. Goalie Antero Niittymaki stopped 30 of 32 shots to record the victory. The Phantoms (44-22-3-4, 95 points)

Kirby Law scored twice and added two assists to lead the Phantoms to a 6-2 win over the Hershey Bears last night in an American Hockey League game. The victory ended the Phantoms' winless streak at six games, in which they went 0-5-1. Sheldon Keefe put the Bears in front 18 seconds into the game when his shot beat Phantoms goalie Antero Niittymaki. Mike Peluso, Dennis Seidenberg and Mark Murphy scored to give the Phantoms a 3-1 first-period lead. Ben Stafford made it 4-1 when he slipped a rebound into the net at 8 minutes, 26 seconds of the middle period for his second of the season.

Peter White's shorthanded goal 14 minutes, 9 seconds into the first period stood up to give the Phantoms a 1-0 victory over the Providence Bruins last night in an American Hockey League contest at the Wachovia Spectrum. White was assisted by Dennis Seidenberg on the game-winner. It was the first meeting between the teams since they split a pair of games in the 2001-02 season, when each club posted a shutout on its home ice. The Phantoms snapped an 0-3-1 winless streak and helped continue their domination of the Bruins.

Ernie Hartlieb's goal with just over a minute to play capped a three-goal third period and gave the Worcester IceCats a 4-3 win over the Phantoms in an AHL game last night. The Phantoms had taken a 2-1 lead into the final period before Worcester's John Pohl netted his second goal of the game 35 seconds into the period to even the score. Greg Day gave Worcester its first lead at the 8-minute mark, as Hartlieb set up his fifth goal of the season. But Phantoms defenseman Dennis Seidenberg answered with 6:44 remaining to knot the score, 3-3. During a 4-on-4 situation, Mark Greig and David Harlock assisted on Seidenberg's third goal as a Phantom.

The Phoenix Coyotes yesterday acquired center Kevyn Adams from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Adams skated in all 25 postseason games for last year's champions. He scored a career-high 15 goals and played in all 82 regular-season games in 2005-06. Adams, 32, recently returned after missing nine games with a wrist surgery and a staph infection. Seidenberg, who played for the Flyers from 2002 to midway through the 2005 season, is in his fourth NHL season.

The Phantoms rolled past the Hershey Bears last night, 4-1, in an AHL game at the Wachovia Spectrum for their 14th straight win over their intrastate rivals. It was also the sixth straight victory for the Phantoms, who lead the East Division with 12 points. Hershey took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Marek Svatos scored his second goal of the season on assists from Brett Clark and Jeff Ulmer. The Phantoms evened the score 2 minutes, 46 seconds into the second period when Joey Hope scored on assists from Dennis Seidenberg and Peter White.

Jon Sim scored two third-period goals and goalie Neil Little stopped 27 shots for the Phantoms last night in a 3-0 AHL win over the Albany River Rats at the Wachovia Spectrum. Little turned aside nine shots in each period to improve to 10-2. It was his first shutout of the season, his 16th as a Phantom, and the 19th of his professional career. The Phantoms are 3-0 against Albany this season. Dennis Seidenberg and Ryan Ready each added two points for the Phantoms, who snapped a four-game home losing streak in front of a crowd of 8,561.

Patrick Sharp had two goals and an assist, and Neil Little made 30 saves in his first start in over a month, as the Phantoms routed the Grand Rapids Griffins, 6-1, in an AHL game in Michigan yesterday. The Phantoms led, 2-0, after the first period. R.J. Umberger scored first when the puck bounced off him into the net 7 minutes, 12 seconds into the game. It was Umberger's 14th goal. Dennis Seidenberg added his eighth goal of the season later in the period. Blake Sloan cut the deficit for Grand Rapids early in the second period before the Phantoms went on a three-goal run and took a 5-1 lead.

RESILIENCE: The word bounces around this time of the year as if it were, well, a puck. Survivors of this brutal game of hockey knockout invariably mention it as crucial to their success, the implication being that the team headed to the golf course lacked it, or at least enough of it. But resilience is in the eye of the beholder. The Boston Bruins reached a seventh-game overtime in their surprisingly grueling first-round ouster by Washington. We know Patrice Bergeron was playing with a bad shoulder, leg and who knows what else, and it was clear that Zdeno Chara was not the same guy from the spring before.

TO WANDER around the Flyers' dressing room during their playoff interregnum - no start date for the next round, no opponent yet identified, no questions worth asking after the first day - is to witness the impossible: Defensemen. Lots of them. Seemingly growing healthier. Depth getting deeper. The venerable-and-essential Kimmo Timonen, who has been patched together physically for months now, talks about what could end up being a weeklong layoff and smiles easily and says, "To be honest, I need it. " But to walk among the rest of the defensemen at their locker stalls is to see legitimate hope that Andrej Meszaros and Nicklas Grossmann could be back at some point from their injuries, and legitimate production from Erik Gustafsson as a fill-in at the end of the Pittsburgh series.

KYLE TURRIS scored twice and had a pair of assists, Milan Michalek added his team-leading 35th goal and the visiting Ottawa Senators clinched a playoff berth with a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders on Sunday. The Senators (41-28-10) won their fourth straight game to move four points behind idle New Jersey for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Both teams have three games left before the regular season ends Saturday. The Senators, with 92 points, are four ahead of eighth-place Washington.

Dennis Seidenberg and Patrice Bergeron scored second-period goals, and Tim Thomas made 33 saves for the Boston Bruins, who clinched the Northeast Division title with a 2-1 victory over the host New York Rangers on Sunday night. Boston also prevented the Rangers from winning the Atlantic Division and securing the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. New York needs just one point in its final three games to finish first. Wings top Panthers Jiri Hudler scored with 14 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the third period and again in a shootout to help the host Detroit Red Wings beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1. The Panthers secured a point to move three ahead of second-place Washington in the Southeast Division with three games remaining.

BOSTON - The Flyers on Thursday night returned to earsplitting TD Garden, where their disappointing season ended last spring - and caused general manager Paul Holmgren to do a roster transplant. Opening their season on a night when Boston lifted its Stanley Cup banner to the rafters, the Flyers ruined the Bruins' celebratory mood. They got goals from Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek in a hard-fought, 2-1 win that featured an impressive Flyers debut by goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

BOSTON - The Flyers on Thursday night returned to ear-splitting TD Garden, where their disappointing season ended last spring - and caused general manager Paul Holmgren to do a roster transplant. Opening their season on a night when Boston lifted its Stanley Cup banner to the rafters, the Flyers ruined the Bruins' celebratory mood. They got goals from Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek in a hard-fought, 2-1 win that featured an impressive Flyers debut by goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

BOSTON - Dennis Seidenberg has worn the colors of four teams in the five-plus years since the Flyers cut their ties with him in a deal with the Phoenix Coyotes for an over-the-hill Petr Nedved midway through the 2005-06 season. Now that he has found a home with the Boston Bruins, the defenseman is treating the team that drafted him like an uninvited guest. If the 29-year-old Seidenberg hasn't been the best defenseman in the Eastern Conference semifinal series, which the Bruins can end in a sweep on Friday at TD Garden, he's second only to his partner along the blue line - 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara.

MONTREAL - Brian Gionta and Michael Cammalleri scored during two separate two-man advantages, and the Montreal Canadiens forced a Game 7 in their first-round playoff series with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night. Game 7 is Wednesday night in Boston, with the Bruins looking to beat Montreal for only the ninth time in 33 postseason series. Dennis Seidenberg scored for Boston, which played more than half the game without ejected winger Milan Lucic but still outshot the Canadiens, 32-27.

When the New York Rangers lost at Boston 2 Sundays ago, their playoff hopes were all but lost. The deficit was big, the games were few, and a road trip loomed. But the bumbling Rangers got hot. They routed the New York Islanders at home and raced to a 4-0-1 start on the six-game trip that made believers again that a fifth straight trip to the playoffs was possible. A loss at Buffalo on Tuesday night dashed the spirits again. New York, however, shook that off 1 day later and began its final three-game push with a 5-1 victory over the lowly Toronto Maple Leafs last night.