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Consecutive Wins For Flyers |
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First the news of hour: Scottie Upshall has a sprained right ankle but insists he will play although GM Paul Holmgren said after the game he expects Upshall to miss a few games.
Upshall was moving pretty good after the game in the dressing room after ice treatment.
"Just a mild sprain," he told me. "I twisted it in front of the net catching a pass. I caught the puck with skate and as I went to turn and shoot, I caught a rut. It folded over. It felt sore but it's fine. X-rays were negative. We'll see how it is tomorrow."
Next thing: Antero Niittymaki is in goal tomorrow at Florida. I would have gone back-to-back with Marty Biron. This is a must-win road trip for the Flyers.
"We look at this as starting a very big road swing for us," Biron said. "We played extremely good game at home (against Toronto) and this team (Tampa) played the same style. We didn't take anything easy or for granted today. Five on five we did the job we had to do."
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Twice is nice: Flyers won 4-1 vs. Toronto on Thursday, making this the first back-to-back victories since Nov. 10-12 vs. Pittsburgh and the Islanders.
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Lupul on why this team struggles to win consecutive games:
“A lot of it has to do with being young team,” he said. "Sometimes you get caught up thinking we’re too good a team, sometimes. We have to get a mindset to play hard and consistent every night to win.”
Coach John Stevens on the Flyers' turnovers early that forced Biron to save them repeatedly:
“The first period we did a poor job on breakouts and all the opportunities they had, we gave them,” Stevens said. “We didn’t execute our game plan very well. Second period we got into some trouble there, they pressured hard on the walls … But as the game wore on, we got some odd man rushes … we got the lead in the third and won.”
Lupul on winning here:
“This was a big night for us,” he said. “We had a lot of problems in this building in the past. To get that second win in a row is big for us because we’ve struggled this year. We get big wins, then follow it up with an average performance."
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Timonen trickle rebound...
Knuble on his goal
"It was kind of a bang bang play. We did a good job of covering the puck up off the draw. The puck went around the horn, pretty much everybody touched it. Jeff made a great pass underneath their defenseman right on my tape. He made a pretty good save on the first one. I was able to stay with it and jammed it under his pad and I poked it in".
what do you do in third to maintain lead?
Knuble: "we gave up probably too many quality chances in the first two periods. We have to make sure we keep our third forward high and the biggest thing is to stay out of the penalty box. They have a lot of skilled guys and if we keep heading to the box we are going to be playing with fire "
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Delayed penalty as Hartnell tripped and gets the timely goal ... 3-1.
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Tampa: 0-13-1 when trailing after 2 periods.
Flyers: 15-1-0 when leading after 2 periods.
Flyers were horribly outplayed that period, again, turning pucks over again and again as Biron made some terrific stops.
Flyers had 12 shots until that PP at the end when Mike Knuble got 3 on Ramo, the last jab going under the goalie to regain the lead, 2-1.
Knuble has 11 goals this season. Nine on the power play. Odd stat but true.
Biron is holding things together right now.
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Q: describe the play leading up to the penalty shot
Lupul: "I was going down the wing pretty much as fast as I could and Richy made a good pass to me. The puck kind of took a funny bounce over their defenseman's stick and I took it hard to the net and I was rewarded with the penalty shot.".
Q: what were you thinking on the penalty shot?
Lupul: "I am more of a shooter than a deeker so I am coming in looking shot first. I thought I saw him backing up and with just a quick little release I was able to get it through the five-hole.".
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BTW: Bowman's seat was occupied by Pat Burns as Scotty is a no-show for the first time I can remember in recent years when the Flyers visit here. Guess I should have waited till I actually saw him but he usually sits right behind me.
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Helluva shot from Vinny Lecavalier on a one-timer that M. Biron had no shot to cover to the post. Tampa moves the puck very quickly on the PP. 1-1
One thing I see in this game and it is alarming is the FLyers are coughing the puck up continually in their own end under pressure. Not a good sign.
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Lupul penalty shot off inside pads and five -hole. Snap 0-for-8 Flyers skid on penalty shots going back to 2004 ... only 13th penalty shot this team has ever converted (13 of 38).
Lupul ties last year's mark of 16 goals -- his 10th goal in last 9 games.
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Good fight with R narrow decision over Cote ...
Kukkonen still can't skate right. His stride is way off. This foot injury is noticeable even from the press box, 200 feet off th4e ice.
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A bit puzzling ... they call up S. Ruzicka for this trip and scratch him against Tampa. Riley Cote plays on that 4th line. I would have thought you play Ruzicka here and Cote in Florida ...
L.Kukkonen is in; R. Fitzpatrick remains scratched - 7 straight
TAMPA _ Afternoon matinee today here against the Bolts. Scotty Bowman is in the house, too. Always good to see him and talk league-wide stuff.
Just reading Bruce Garrioch's report on Ray Emery. Luv that Ottawa Sun lede: asking whether Emery is really sick or if the club is simply sick of him.
Anyone who think Emery had the flu or whatever illness, I got some prime real estate still up for sale at 16W on the NJ Turnpike, near the former home of the Devils. You may heard of it ... the Swamplands of East Rutherford?
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Randy Jones MRI on his right knee was negative, I am told. No arthroscopic surgery is planned. I guess that's good news. But that fact he has so much discomfort he can't skate seems ominous to me.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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