Inland Waterways » sket. The Jayhawks regained the lead at 59-

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Flyers had hoped to get off a good start. Even they couldnt have predicted just how dominant they would be to open the game.Sean Couturier had a goal and an assist in the first period, Jakub Voracek continued his offensive surge, and the Flyers cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.The Flyers led 2-0 less than 7 minutes into the game. Couturier deflected in a shot from Brayden Schenn at 3:53, and Michael Del Zotto made it 2-0 less than 3 minutes later with his first goal with the Flyers.We talked about needing to get off to a good start, said Schenn, who had two assists. We tried to jump on them early, and theres a couple of plays we capitalized on.Voracek got his sixth goal of the season to pull into tie with Pittsburghs Sidney Crosby with a league-leading 19 points, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for Philadelphia, which has won four straight at home.Nick Bjugstad scored his first goal of the season for the Panthers, who had earned at least one point in their previous seven games.Nobody was very good for us tonight, Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. We just werent sharp enough, we werent hungry enough and we didnt battle enough.Steve Mason made 35 saves, including a big third-period stop on Bjugstad, to pick up his second straight win for the Flyers. Roberto Luongo stopped 30 shots for Florida.The Flyers dominated the first period with Couturier opening the scoring. The play developed when Schenn won the puck with a forecheck and Matt Read slid a pass from the corner to him and Schenn one-timed a shot toward net.The same line struck again at 6:38 as Del Zotto scored after rifling a tough-angle shot past an out-of-position Luongo with Schenn and Couturier getting the assists.Schenn, who started the season on the teams first line, believes that getting Couturier and Read going on the third line could turn out to be a huge boost for the team.Youre going to need some secondary scoring, the defenceman said. With the three of us, weve got some good chemistry. As long as we play good defence, the offensive chances will come.Flyers coach Craig Berube has liked what hes seen out of that line as well, saying that he wants to keep Schenn in that spot rather than move him back to the top line to replace Michael Raffl, who will miss six weeks with a foot injury.I like him where hes at, Berube said. I didnt find that (Read) and (Couturier) were shooting enough pucks and getting it to the net. Hopefully Schenn can force that a little and get to the net himself, like he should.The Flyers picked up right where they left off early in the second period with Bellemare one-timing one over Luongos shoulder following a turnover and feed from Carlo Colaiacovo. The assist marked Colaiacovos first point in two games with the Flyers.The Panthers pulled to 3-1 with 8:10 remaining in the second period on a power-play goal from Bjugstad, who pounced on a rebound. Jimmy Hayes, who split the Flyers penalty kill to put a backhander on net, and Dmitry Kulikov got the assists after Phillys Chris VandeVelde was sent to the box for high-sticking.Bjugstad, who had 16 goals and 22 assists last year, was relieved to finally get his first goal of the season.I mean, yeah, you dont really think about how long its going to take, he said. Obviously you dont want it to take that long but you just have to stay positive throughout.It was the first power-play goal the Flyers allowed at home this season, snapping their streak at 19 straight penalty kills.Just 39 seconds later, the Flyers regained their three-goal cushion when Voracek scored as Claude Giroux set him up with a perfectly executed 2-on-1 break.Voracek extended his scoring streak to seven games, with four goals and eight assists during the stretch.It was a great breakout, Voracek said. Obviously (Giroux) is one of the best playmakers in the league. So I was ready for that pass. It was an easy tap-in.NOTES: The win for the Flyers evened a 2-1 loss they suffered to the Panthers five days ago in Florida. ... Thursdays game was the second of a four-game homestand for Philadelphia. . The Panthers have totalled a league-low 16 goals all season. ... The Flyers wore fatigues during warmups for Military Appreciation Night at the Wells Fargo Center, and U.S. servicemen were honoured throughout the game. Tyson Chandler Jersey . Watch all the action unfold live on TSN and TSN Mobile TV at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. You can also watch the game live with the debut of Wednesday Night Hockey on TSN.ca and chat throughout the game with TSN. Robert Horry Jersey .com) - Rakeem Christmas scored 21 points, B. http://www.lakersteamofficial.com/Magic-Johnson-Lakers-Jersey/ .com) - The Eastern Conference-leading Toronto Raptors are back in the great white north for a brief moment and will host the Dallas Mavericks Friday night from Air Canada Centre. Derek Fisher Lakers Jersey . He will be practicing with the Norfolk Admirals (AHL) on a conditioning assignment. - @AnaheimDucks Corey Perry has a knee sprain and will miss the next three to four weeks. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jersey . Old times for a defence that has looked just plain old recently? "No," safety Ryan Clark said. "We used to be much better than that.ST. LOUIS -- Bill Self gathered his team around the bench late in Fridays game against Eastern Kentucky, one that had grown a bit too close for comfort for the second-seeded Jayhawks. His team had gone back to chucking up jumpers, the scrappy Ohio Valley Conference champions had regained the lead, and thoughts of Mercers upset of Duke earlier in the day were on everyones mind. "I thought we responded as a group," Self said. The Jayhawks resumed pounding away inside out of the timeout, slowly took control down the stretch and pulled away for an 80-69 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Andrew Wiggins of Vaughan, Ont., had 19 points for the Jayhawks (25-9), who will play No. 10 seed Stanford on Sunday in the South Regional. Jamari Traylor added 17 points and 14 rebounds, Perry Ellis had 14 points and 13 boards and Tarik Black finished with 12 points as Kansas dominated in the paint. "Our main focus on the game was to get in there and pound them," Traylor said. Even without 7-footer Joel Embiid, who is out for the weekend with a back injury. Glenn Cosey hit five 3-pointers and had 17 points for the 15th-seeded Colonels (24-10), who have lost all eight of their NCAA tournament games. Tarius Johnson and Eric Stutz finished with 15 points apiece, but second-leading scorer Corey Walden was held to four points before fouling out. "Corey is a very important part of our team," Colonels coach Jeff Neubauer said. "With that being said, thats not an excuse. Kansas really played great." In the second half, perhaps. Certainly not in the first. Like a swarm of gnats, the smaller guards of Eastern Kentucky made life miserable for the turnover-prone Jayhawks in the first 20 minutes. Kansas had more turnovers (10) by the midway point than field goal attempts (9), and at one juncture turned it over on six of eight possessions. Most of those miscues turned into easy points at the other end. The Colonels, buoyed by their trademark 3-point shooting, raced out to a 23-14 lead, silencing a heavily pro-Jayhawks crowd and even making some fans out of New Mexico and Stanford folks. "Our defence is focused on turning people over and being aggressive," Stutz said. "In that first half, thats what got us our leead.dddddddddddd" It wasnt until the first of two rim-rattling dunks by Wiggins off alley-oop passes that Kansas showed some life. The second came during an 8-0 flurry that gave the Big 12 champions a 28-27 lead with just over a minute to play, their first since the opening minute of the game. The Jayhawks have grown accustomed to tussles with lower seeds, of course. Just last year, they trailed No. 16 seed Western Kentucky at halftime before pulling away down the stretch. It looked like Kansas would pull away again Friday, scoring on its first seven trips down court and building a 45-38 lead. The turnovers suddenly came to a stop -- after 13 in the first half, the Jayhawks had just one in the second -- and Eastern Kentucky was suddenly on the ropes. But rather than continue to pound away inside, where the Jayhawks were having so much success, they reverted to missing jump shots. The Colonels took advantage with a 10-0 run, and Self called a red-faced timeout rather than risk pulling out his hair. "We knew that anything could happen," the Jayhawks Conner Frankamp said. "We were down, we tried to stay poised and not get too rattled, and just tried to make the easy play, because we felt like we could score pretty good down low." Once they were reminded of that fact. Kansas went back inside out of the timeout, dumping the ball to a big man or driving to the basket. The Jayhawks regained the lead at 59-56 on Wayne Seldens free throw and Traylors putback dunk, and then kept turning back every 3-pointer that Eastern Kentucky managed to rattle home. "Just our mentality (changed)," Wiggins said. "We were tougher on the ball. We knew against the defence of this team, we had to make good decisions, great plays and throw it inside." When the final seconds ticked away, and the Jayhawks were assured of advancing, Self slowly walked to the scorers table to shake hands with his Eastern Kentucky counterpart. He exhaled deeply as he stuck out his hand, and the first words he said were, "Great game." "They played great. They played loose and gave us everything we wanted," he said later. "It was a hard-fought game, one we had to work our tail off 40 minutes to come out with a win." ' ' '