By Al Cohen
Philadelphia Phantoms Correspondent

Jeff Carter scored twice and added an assist as the Philadelphia Phantoms registered a 4-1 victory over the Norfolk Admirals tonight in Game Four of the East Division Semifinals.

With the win, Philadelphia assumed a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and can advance into the division finals on Friday in Game Five at the Scope.

R.J. Umberger and Patrick Sharp also scored, while Antero Niittymaki stopped 40-of-41 shots for the Phantoms, who have outscored Norfolk 11-5 in the series. Philadelphia also improved to 11-2 all-time in Game Four of a playoff series.

Craig Anderson made 36 saves on 39 shots for Norfolk, which lost in six games to Philadelphia in last year's East Division Semifinals.

Philadelphia attempted 11 of its 15 first-period shots during the first five minutes of the game and opened the scoring during a 4-on-4 situation at the 2:45 mark on an unassisted tally by Umberger.

Joni Pitkanen set up the play by forcing Norfolk's Pavel Vorobiev into a turnover deep in the Admirals zone and Umberger wound up with the puck alone between the circles for an easy blast past Anderson.

Umberger became the fourth different Phantom to score his first career playoff goal in this series.

Philadelphia widened the gap to 3-0 with a pair of similar-looking goals during the second period. First, Carter pounced on a wide shot by Ryan Ready and tallied his second postseason goal by placing the puck over the goal line between his legs and backwards from the doorstep at the 14:09 mark.

Just 2:36 later, Freddy Meyer took a feed from Carter and shot the puck wide, but Sharp was at the same spot outside the crease to score his first goal of the playoffs. Sharp (1G, 5A) is the only Phantom to record a point in each game of the series.

Jason Morgan ended Niittymaki's shutout bid with 6:57 remaining in the game when his shot during a power play was blocked by Niittymaki, but bounded up and over the goalie and into the back of the net.

The power-play goal was just the second in 28 attempts allowed by Philadelphia this series.

Anderson was pulled for an extra attacker with three minutes to play and Carter capped the scoring with an empty-netter at 18:31.

Phantoms Notes: Joey Hope, David Printz, Charlie Cook, Mark Murphy and Riley Cote were scratched ... Carter has a three-game point streak (3G, 2A) ... Philadelphia has scored seven of its 11 goals during the second period.