Carter, Gagne out with foot injuries

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VOORHEES, N.J. -- Flyers forwards Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne will have surgery Friday on their injured right feet, and it is likely Carter will be out for the remainder of the playoffs.

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The Flyers got into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. They face a Devils team looking for its first playoff-series win since 2007. Follow the matchup from Day 1 on ESPN.com. Series page

• 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs • SportsNation: Who will win? • ESPNNewYork.com: Devils blog

Philadelphia general manager Paul Holmgren said in a statement Wednesday that both players hurt their right feet during Tuesday night's game, a 4-1 Flyers victory against the New Jersey Devils.

Later, he added that both players would have surgery on Friday.

Gagne's recovery time is expected to be about three weeks. Carter, who recently returned from a broken left foot, will be on crutches for six weeks and is likely to be out for the playoffs.

The Flyers have a 3-1 Eastern Conference series lead. The Devils need to win Thursday night at home to extend their season. If they do, they will face elimination again Sunday in Philadelphia and will try to force the series back to New Jersey for Game 7.

Philadelphia took the opener in New Jersey before dropping Game 2 on the road. At home, the Flyers erased another early 1-0 deficit and pulled out a Game 3 overtime win on Daniel Carcillo's overtime goal.

Carcillo scored again on Tuesday in Game 4, when Carter scored his first two goals of the series.

But now the Flyers face the prospect of trying to finish off the Devils without Carter, their regular-season leader with 33 goals, and Gagne -- who had 17.

Carter had missed eight games toward the end of the regular season with a fractured left foot.

"It's tough," Carter said. "It seems like I just got off [crutches for the other foot]. It's definitely disappointing. I really felt like I was getting back into my groove and get some jump in my game."

Gagne was hurt on Ilya Kovalchuk's shot with 4:30 to play in the second period.

Carter was the victim of a shot by his own teammate, defenseman Chris Pronger, in the third period. Carter managed to corral the loose puck and scored anyway, his second of the game.

Philadelphia will likely replace the injured forwards with Ville Leino, acquired from Detroit this season, and either David Laliberte, Andreas Nodl or Jon Kalinski -- all recently recalled from Adirondack of the AHL.

"Everybody deals with that in the playoffs," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "You wish you had a healthy lineup and you certainly wish they were in there. They are not and you have to make adjustments."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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