TORONTO – Alexander Mogilny and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ offense finally found their marks.

Mogilny scored on a breakaway to spark a three-goal, second-period outburst in helping Toronto to a 4-1 playoff win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Alexei Ponikarovsky, Chad Kilger and Darcy Tucker also scored for the Leafs, who cut the Flyers’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven, second-round playoff series.

Game 4 is Friday at Toronto, where the Leafs have won four straight in the playoffs.

Tony Amonte scored a power-play goal for the Flyers, who lost for only the second time in the postseason after needing only five games to eliminate New Jersey in the first round.

Philadelphia failed to score the first goal for the first time in this postseason.

The Flyers also lost their composure in the third period, taking three penalties in a span of 1:26. That included a slashing infraction to Marcus Ragnarsson for a two-handed chop across the back of Mogilny’s legs. Mogilny was on the ice in pain for a few minutes but he returned to the game.

Toronto scored only once during the two-man advantage that lasted for 2:26. Tucker’s goal from the slot made it 4-1 with 8:24 remaining.

Mogilny opened the scoring five minutes into the second. He was set up by Mats Sundin, who stripped Alexei Zhamnov of the puck in the Toronto end, and then spun around to feed Mogilny on the fly at center.

Racing away from defender Sami Kapanen, Mogilny went to his forehand and beat goaltender Robert Esche on the stick side.

Mogilny’s goal came a game after he missed on a similar breakaway in Toronto’s 2-1 loss at Philadelphia on Sunday. The play-making forward snapped his stick in frustration after he missed a second scoring chance

All that changed Wednesday for the Maple Leafs.

Ponikarovsky scored 1:30 later by deflecting in Bryan McCabe’s pass, and Toronto went up 3-0 when Kilger redirected in a bouncing puck from a bad angle at 15:11. It was the first playoff goal for Ponikarovsky in 20 games.

It was an impressive offensive performance from the Maple Leafs, who had been sputtering all postseason. Besides managing just a goal in each of its first two games against Philadelphia, Toronto had scored just 16 goals in nine games.

The Flyers looked sloppy.

Kilger scored after Todd Fedoruk misplayed Vladimir Malakhov’s pass inside the Philadelphia end. The puck bounced off Fedoruk’s skate and directly to Ron Francis, who fed a pass to Tie Domi. Domi’s shot from just inside the blue line deflected off Malakhov’s stick to a wide-open Kilger, who was parked to the right of the net.

The Flyers dominated the first period, outshooting Toronto 8-3, but were foiled by Ed Belfour. His best save came when he got his pad on Danny Markov’s point shot, deflected by Keith Primeau in front.

Primeau also had a scoring chance, but his redirection of Donald Brashear’s centering pass hit the crossbar.

Belfour finished with 18 saves.

Notes: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and union head Bob Goodenow attended the game together, a day before they are to conduct labor talks. The negotiating session will be the first since Oct. 1. … Joe Nieuwendyk, leading Toronto with five playoff goals, missed his second straight game with a back injury. RW Wade Belak made his debut this postseason, replacing Tom Fitzgerald. … Zhamnov had an assist on Amonte’s goal to extend his point streak to eight games (four goals, seven assists).

AP-ES-04-28-04 2142EDT