PREVIEW 1:00 AM EDT
With five games and three home matches remaining in the 2013 season, the Philadelphia Flyers (19-21-3) take on the New Jersey Devils (15-17-10) at the Wells Fargo Center tonight. The game starts at 7:00 p.m. and will broadcast locally on CSN Philly and nationally on NBC Sports Network.
This is the fifth and final meeting between the teams this season and the second in Philadelphia. The Devils won each of the three games in Newark but the Flyers managed a 2-1 shootout win at the WFC last time the clubs played one another.
The Flyers are coming off back-to-back wins against Montreal and the New York Rangers on Monday and Tuesday. In the 4-2 win over the Rangers, Philly got goals from Brayden Schenn, Erik Gustafsson, Kimmo Timonen (power play) and Jakub Voracek (empty net). They also killed five penalties with gusto. Steve Mason was outstanding in turning back 38 of 40 shots.
Philadelphia will be without defensemen Nicklas Grossmann (concussion), Braydon Coburn (separated shoulder), Andrej Meszaros (torn rotator cuff) and Bruno Gervais (abdominal muscle tear) the rest of the season. Defenseman Kent Huskins (concussion) is also unlikely to play again this year. Up front, the Flyers are without Max Talbot (broken leg) and Zac Rinaldo (high ankle sprain) for the rest of the year.
The Devils have been in a free fall down the stretch, and have tumbled out of playoff contention in the Eastern Conference to currently stand one point behind the Flyers with six games remaining on New Jersey's schedule. The Devils drag a 10-game winless streak (0-6-4) into tonight's game and have lost three in a row in regulation.
With just 96 goals (2.28 per game) scored this season, the Devils are the lowest-scoring team in the NHL. The club is without its top offensive weapon, Ilya Kovalchuk, who has been out with a shoulder injury late March. Veteran Patrik Elias leads the team with 31 points (11 goals, 20 assists) in 41 games. A longtime Flyer-killer, Elias has racked up 80 points (35 goals, 45 assists) in 80 career regular season games against Philly.
Apart from Kovalchuk, the club remains without key defensemen Bryce Salvador (wrist injury) and the suspended Anton Volchenkov.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
12 Simon Gagne - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
19 Scott Hartnell - 10 Brayden Schenn - 48 Danny Briere
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 18 Adam Hall - 37 Jay Rosehill
44 Kimmo Timonen - 29 Erik Gustafsson
38 Oliver Lauridsen - 22 Luke Schenn
32 Brandon Manning - 3 Kurtis Foster
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[35 Steve Mason]
DEVILS
26 Patrik Elias - 19 Travis Zajac - 23 David Clarkson
8 Dainius Zubrus - 14 Adam Henrique - 15 Steve Sullivan
12 Alexei Ponikarovsky - 9 Jacob Josefson - 16 Matt D'Agostini
20 Ryan Carter - 11 Stephen Gionta- 18 Steve Bernier
6 Andy Greene - 5 Adam Larsson
7 Henrik Tallinder - 2 Marek Zidlicky
10 Peter Harrold - 29 Mark Fayne
30 Martin Brodeur
[1 Johan Hedberg]
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