PHILADELPHIA – Peter Forsberg scored a goal in his return to the lineup and Simon Gagne added his 40th of the season to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 win over the Devils last night.

Antero Niittymaki made 21 saves for the Flyers, who won for only the fifth time in 12 games. Philadelphia (86 points) is two points back of the Atlantic Division-leading Rangers, who will host the Flyers tonight in New York. Philadelphia is 2-3 against the Rangers this season.

Gagne wasted little time giving Philadelphia the lead, backhanding in a loose puck less than 2 minutes into the game. Gagne became the 12th Flyers player to reach 40 goals.

Forsberg, who sat out Saturday’s game at Atlanta with a mildly sprained knee, made it 2-0 on a power-play goal late in the second period, getting an open-net look. He is wearing a brace that he hopes to get rid of before the playoffs start.

Niittymaki continued to look sharp for the Flyers. He stopped left wing Jay Pandolfo twice in rapid succession in the second period, including a nice glove save on the second shot.

The 25-year-old Niittymaki began the season as the backup to Robert Esche. When Esche was injured at midseason, Niittymaki took over and has been out standing. He led Finland to the silver medal at last month’s Olympics and became just the fifth first-year goalie in team history to record 20 wins.

Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t a fan of playing the same goalie on consecutive nights, so Esche will likely start against the Rangers. Hitchcock maintains he won’t make a decision about his playoff goalie until the eve of the postseason.

Niittymaki’s only mistake came in the third period, when Brian Gionta fought though a checking attempt by Derian Hatcher and snapped the puck past him from the right circle for his 37th goal.

Martin Brodeur had 19 saves for the Devils, who lost for the fourth time five games.

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ISLANDERS 3, CANADIENS 1 Rick DiPietro made 33 saves, and Robert Nilsson scored to snap a second-period tie to help the Islanders end a three game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Sean Bergenheim and Jason Blake also scored for the Islanders, who are five points behind the eighth-place Canadiens in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Both teams have 14 games left, and the top eight clubs will qualify for the postseason.

Mark Streit had the only goal for the Canadiens, losers in four of five. Cristobal Huet stopped 22 shots.

The Islanders took the lead at 9:11 when Bergenheim’s second wraparound attempt beat Huet to the far corner.

New York was down two men for a full 2 minutes. With 7 seconds left in the power play, Streit wristed in a cross crease feed from Mike Ribeiro to tie it 1-1 at 11:34.

The Isles moved back in front at 14:37 of the second period when Nilsson took a 50-foot slap shot that hit off the stick of a Montreal defenseman and dropped, fooling Huet as it went into the net.

Blake scored an insurance goal to make it 3-1 at 11:10. His one-timer from the slot trickled past Huet and gave Blake his 24th goal – second most on the team.

With the Islanders leading by two goals and only 55 seconds remaining, DiPietro took a shot at the empty net after Montreal pulled Huet with 2:45 left. His attempt was stopped at Montreal’s blue line.

Islanders center Mike York returned to the lineup after missing two games with concussion-like symptoms.

The game drew a crowd of 14,286 after many seats were sold for only $10. Ticket prices were slashed by Islanders owner Charles Wang as a thank you after his proposal to refurbish Nassau Coliseum was selected by the county government over three others – including one by the owners of the Mets.