Martin Biron made 39-of-41 stops and Arron Asham tallied twice as the Flyers posted a 4-2 win over the New York Rangers at Wachovia Center, in the first of a home-and-home set.
Both teams play each other Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
Scott Hartnell and Mike Richards also scored for the Flyers, who have won three of four and moved to three points ahead of fifth-place Montreal in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Nik Antropov and Sean Avery each scored once for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist was victimized for four goals on just 25 shots in the loss.
Philly has beaten the Rangers in the last two meetings, with three more on the slate including Sunday's matinee in Manhattan.
Antropov put the Blueshirts on the board, taking an errant Matt Carle dump-in and soloed with a forehander past Biron.
The Flyers knotted the game and then went ahead by converting a pair of 2-on-1 breaks.
With 3:26 left in the opening period, Hartnell completed a rush with Carter by taking Carter's rebound and slamming it home. At the 6:07 mark of the second, Gagne fanned on his shot while in the New York zone with Richards, but recovered, slid a pass to Kimmo Timonen who one-touched to the Flyers' captain and he deposited his own rebound for a 2-1 lead.
Asham netted the next two goals in the third period, the second one being a slick wrister over Lundqvist's glove with 5:27 remaining in regulation for a 4-1 lead.
Avery ripped a shot to the far side to make it a two-goal game less than two minutes later but Biron closed the door from there.
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