Brett McLean and David Booth netted third-period goals as Florida held off Philadelphia, 4-2, at Wachovia Center.
Cory Stillman and Radek Dvorak also tallied for the Panthers, who halted a three-game losing streak and won for just the third time in 10 contests. Florida remained in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points out of a playoff berth after eight-seed Montreal topped Tampa Bay.
Craig Anderson stopped 40 shots to register his 13th win of the season.
"I think we've been playing pretty well, but we haven't gotten the results," said Anderson of his club, which had wasted late leads in setbacks to Columbus and Buffalo in the last week. "What other teams do is out of our control. If we do the best we can then we'll see where the chips lay."
Jeff Carter and Scott Hartnell provided offense for the Flyers, who saw their three-game win streak snapped. Philadelphia, the four-seed in the conference, failed to put more distance between itself and idle Carolina, which holds fifth place with 89 points, one behind the Flyers.
Martin Biron allowed three goals on 27 shots in defeat.
McLean converted a pass from Nick Boynton from a Flyers turnover for a 3-2 Panthers lead 2:38 into the third period.
From there, the Panthers did their best to get in the Flyers' way for the remainder of regulation.
When Kimmo Timonen was sent off for interference with 2:15 to play, Philly kept pressing on offense with Biron pulled but Dvorak scored into the empty net with 32.5 seconds to go to ice the Florida victory.
"We've got to do a better job of getting in lanes and blocking shots," Hartnell offered. "We have a couple games in hand on some teams but we have got to take control of our own destiny."
Stillman deflected home Jay Bouwmeester's floating point shot for a power-play score and 1-0 Florida lead with 8:35 left in the first period.
In a deliberately-paced second period, Hartnell had the best Flyer chance to tie the game but hit the post with over six minutes remaining, but Carter came right back to finish off a 2-on-1 with a wrister from the left wing at 14:07.
Only 23 seconds later, a Panthers' odd-man rush resulted in Keith Ballard's shot being kicked out by Biron right to Dvorak for a tap-in and 2-1 Florida edge.
Carter and Hartnell teamed up to tie the game with 3.8 seconds left in the period, as the former found a loose puck behind the net and dished back to the latter for a one-timer over Anderson's glove.
Game Notes
Florida has won two of the three meetings this season, and has won four of the last five games in Philadelphia...Prior to the contest, the Flyers recalled defenseman Danny Syvret from the Phantoms under emergency conditions, as a precaution against Timonen's unknown illness...The clubs play one more time this year, in Philadelphia, on April 7...The Flyers play at the Islanders on Saturday.
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