TORONTO – Darcy Tucker scored two power-play goals and the Toronto Maple won their eighth straight against the Atlanta Thrashers, earning a 4-2 victory on Monday night.

Tomas Kaberle and Jeff O’Neill also scored for Toronto, which won consecutive games for the first time this season. The Maple Leafs beat Montreal in a shootout Saturday night.

The Thrashers lost for just the second time in regulation, and were coming off a big victory on Saturday when they snapped Buffalo’s season-opening winning streak at 10.

But their troubles against Toronto continued. Atlanta has been outscored 37-9 during the skid and hasn’t beaten the Maple Leafs since a 3-2 road victory on Oct. 27, 2003.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Brad Larsen scored for Atlanta.=

Flyers 3, Blackhawks 0

PHILADELPHIA – Peter Forsberg scored twice, including a spectacular goal in the third period, and Robert Esche recorded his 10th career shutout in the Flyers’ 3-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

It was only the third win in 11 games for the Flyers (3-7-1), off to one of their poorest starts in franchise history. The Blackhawks have dropped five straight after winning three of four. Esche, making only his third start, stopped 26 shots in his first win of the season. He was especially sharp in the second period when he made 15 saves and helped kill three Chicago power plays.

Esche was aided by defenseman Denis Gauthier, who made a diving stop of a shot by former Flyer Patrick Sharp in the front of the net midway through the third period.

Chicago’s Brian Boucher was almost as effective in stopping 32 of 34 shots.

Boucher played for the third straight game, replacing Nikolai Khabibulin, who is expected to be sidelined one to two weeks because of a broken finger.

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