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Meltzer's Musings: 2/11/11 |
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The Flyers turned in a patient, workmanlike performance last night in beating Carolina, 2-1. It would have been easy for the club to get flustered. Philly dominated the first 15 minutes of the opening period but were unable to score a goal until Jeff Carter broke a scoreless deadlock in the opening minute of the third period.
Over the course of the game, All Star goalie Cam Ward made three or four phenomenal saves for the Canes to give them a chance to win. He had no chance of stopping Danny Briere's game-winner, who had time to cradle the puck and elevate under the cross bar from a severe angle (if Briere were a left-handed shooter, there would have been nothing at all to shoot at) At the other end of the ice, Brian Boucher was once again razor sharp.
The Flyers have now won nine straight games against the Canes, who would be their first-round playoff opponent if Philly protects its top spot in the East and Carolina finishes eighth. Overall, the Flyers are 15-0-3 in their last 18 games against the Hurricanes.
Carolina's last regulation win against the Flyers came on December 19, 2006, when the Canes downed the Flyers, 2-1, in Philadelphia. Since that time, Carolina has prevailed twice in overtime and once by shootout. Of the 15 Flyers win, two came in OT and two by shootout, with the rest in regulation.
Other notes from last night:
* Peter Laviolette benched Nikolay Zherdev for most of the third period. In the two previous games (especially the Dallas tilt last Saturday), Zherdev had been skipped on several shifts but still reached double-digit ice time. Likewise, Dan Carcillo was stapled to the bench after taking a bad offensive zone penalty and committing a defensive gaffe. It seems likely that Jody Shelley will make his return to the lineup on Sunday at the expense of either Zherdev or Carcillo.
* Braydon Coburn played a tremendous game, and got under the skin (no pun intended) of Canes' star rookie Jeff Skinner. The youngster was flagged for taking a retaliatory run at the Flyers' defenseman after being leveled with a heavy hit. He then mouthed off to the referees, drawing a lecture. Such is the learning process in the NHL.
* Tuomo Ruutu played a whale of a game (again, no pun intended) for Carolina, hitting everything in sight, winning most of his faceoffs and scoring the lone Hurricanes goal. He should have been one of the three stars of the game.
* Claude Giroux took a puck off the right knee in the second period of the game and hobbled to the bench, eventually going off very gingerly to the dressing room. He returned to the ice several minutes later and played well the rest of the way. Nevertheless, he's probably feeling very sore today from a nasty deep bruise.
* Matt Carle’s assist on the second Flyers' goal was his first power-play point of the season. His previous 24 points had all come in even strength situations.
* The Flyers went 31 for 57 (54 percent) on faceoffs last night. In the three wins against Carolina so far this year, the Flyers have won 110 of 190 draws (57.9 percent).
* The red-hot Carter has nine points (6 G, 3 A) in his last six games, and 15 points (10 G, 5 A) in the last dozen games.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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