Brind'Amour celebrates childs birth with 2 goals in Flyers' 3-0 win

PHILADELPHIA -- Some day, Rod Brind'Amour will probably tell his daughter about the special way he celebrated her birth.

Two days after his wife delivered their first child, Brind'Amour scored two goals as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-0 Tuesday night.

Ron Hextall made 29 saves to get his fourth shutout of the season, but the focus was on the new father, who said his wife hasn't come up with a name for their daughter yet.

"Kelle's deciding that, and I'm just kind of laying low," said Brind'Amour, who said he was lucky to get two goals because he had become distracted by the big event.

"It was nice to see a couple go in early because I was afraid I wasn't that focused," said Brind'Amour, who has six goals in six games.

It was only the second loss in the last eight games for Buffalo (4-2-2). The Flyers have lost only one of their last eight (5-1-2).

"We've been playing good defense lately," Hextall said. "Shutouts are overrated. Honestly, I didn't even know it was my fourth."

Brind'Amour beat Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek twice in a four-minute span to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead after the first period.

On the first goal, he banged a loose puck in traffic just outside the crease at 5:57. On the second, at 9:57, he collected a Buffalo giveaway just outside the blue line, came in on a breakaway and slipped the puck between Hasek's legs.

The Flyers made it 3-0 with the second period's only goal, a power-play tally at 18:22.

Buffalo, the NHL's most penalized team, had a man in the penalty box when Eric Lindros backhanded a rebound into the open side of the net as Sabres defenseman Bob Boughner was pulling him down.

Newcomer Alexandre Daigle, picked up in a trade with Ottawa on Friday, got his first point as a Flyer when he assisted on the goal by Lindros by stopping a clearing attempt by Hasek.

"When we couldn't clear the puck out of our zone and it came back to haunt us," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We just can't keep giving up penalties.''

Matthew Barnaby, the man in the box when Lindros scored, had the Sabres' best scoring chance of the game in the middle period.

He skated in alone on Hextall and deked the Flyers goalie out of position. But Barnaby's short forehand hit the post and skirted along the goal line before coming to a stop under the prone Hextall.

"If my shot goes in instead of hitting off the post, it could have been a momentum changer," Barnaby said. "Hextall was tough. Everything went his way."

Trailing 3-0 and with games Wednesday and Friday, the Sabres replaced Hasek, last year's NHL MVP, with Steve Shields at the start of the third period.