WRAPUP: FLYERS SKEWER SABRES, 5-1
A four-goal explosion in the second period, a 6-for-6 performance on the penalty kill and spectacular goaltending throughout by Steve Mason enabled the Philadelphia Flyers to capture a 5-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center. The win snapped a three-game losing streak.
The floodgates opened as R.J. Umberger snapped a 50-game goalless drought that dated back to Jan.27 of last season (vs. Arizona) and Buffalo was deluged by goals by Brayden Schenn (15th of the season), Wayne Simmonds (20th) and Michael Raffl (seventh). Nineteen seconds after Buffalo finally solved Mason midway through the first period, rookie Nick Cousins scored on a breakaway for his first goal in the NHL.
Cousins and Raffl both had two-point games. Shayne Gostisbehere earned an assist on the Simmonds goal to tie Mikael Renberg's franchise-record (1993-94) rookie point streak at 10 games.
Mason, who inexplicably was left off the three-star selection list, was the glue that held the Flyers together through a first-period penalty parade and 14-6 shot disadvantage. The Flyers got sloppy defensively in the third period and Mason was largely left to fend for himself against an 18-shot barrage. The only goal he yielded was one he had no chance to stop. Mason finished with 41 saves on 42 shots.
"It was pretty good, but I still think there are some things that I wanted to clean up overall. I think the biggest thing tonight was our penalty kill. Again, I think it was a huge reason of why we came out on top. We got to cut down on the penalties that we are taking, but the guys that are on the penalty killing unit are doing a great job. That’s all we can ask of them," Mason said.
Buffalo counterpart Robin Lehner was mediocre in net for the Sabres. Both the Simmonds (short side under his arm) and Cousins (low unscreened 33-foot slap shot through the five-hole) should have been stopped. Jamie McGinn scored the lone Sabres' goal in a losing cause.
After the game, the Sabres were peeved at Flyers' defenseman Radko Gudas for what they alleged to be a slew-foot on Marcus Foligno moments before Raffl scored and a predatory head shot on rookie forward Daniel Catenacci late in the third period.
“That guy's an idiot and stupid. He gets his hits in, he’s dirty and he’s been known for it. He goes after a rookie who plays in three games and goes right at his head. He’s an idiot, that guy, that’s all I can say. I wish that me and DLo [Nicolas Deslauriers] were out on the ice at that time and we could’ve done a little worse damage to him," said Foligno, who fought Gudas as the Flyers celebrated the Raffl goal.
The first period for the Flyers was not exactly what the team wanted in their return match from an ugly 4-1 drubbing by the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. Thanks to Mason and the penalty kill, they got the game to intermission scoreless on both sides.
The line of Jordal Weal, R.J. Umberger and Sam Gagner staged a strong first shift and two shots before Lehner covered up for a stoppage. A few minutes later, Raffl was denied on the backhand on a semi-breakaway but theh drew a Flyers power play as he was boarded by Zach Bogosian behind the net. On their second counter-rush of the penalty kill, Buffalo got the only shot of the next two minutes.
With about seven minutes left in the period, Gostisbehere turned over the puck behind the net. The result was a flurry of chances -- five shots saved by Mason in a 10-second span between 13:07 to 13:17 -- for the Sabres.
"It was all towards the left side of the net there. They tried to wrap a lot of pucks while I jammed pucks with plays just to create scrums in front. That was the initial save. I just tried to take away the little portion of the net, and make yourself as big as possible. I was finally able to cover it underneath my arm.”
With 5:54 left in the period, Mark Streit went off for interference. The Flyers killed it off but Streit went right back to box on another interference penalty because his feet were still in the penalty box as he got involved in the play moving past. The Flyers killed the second penalty off, too, but Buffalo applied heave late pressure that carried over after the penalty.
With 51.6 seconds left in the period, Voracek received a tripping minor near the defensive blueline. The Sabres took 1:09 of carryover power play time into the second period. Shots in the first period were 14-6 in the Sabres' favor.
"Maybe [we] built a little momentum but also, we spent a lot of energy there, on the kills in the first period. I think we scored some timely goals, made some good plays and scored some timely goals in the second period. Our penalty killers did an outstanding job but we used a lot of energy killing penalties tonight," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said.
With 28 seconds of carryover power play time left on the Voracek penalty McGinn clearly high-sticked a loose puck into the net. The goal was waved off immediately with no protest from Buffalo.
As the penalty expired, the Flyers broke out the other way. Sam Gagner hit an open R.J. Umberger with a perfect pass in the left slot. Umberger finished it off to finally get off the schneid for the season. Streit got the secondary assist at 1:23. A relieved Umberger made the sign of the cross and pointed skyward after doing a congratulatory fly-by at the players' bench.
"I blacked out. It feels amazing. The best part was the reaction I got from all my teammates. They know what I've been going through. They could sense it. It's huge support from those guys. When you see them even more happier than I was for myself, it's an incredible feeling. It's a huge relief but now it's time to keep moving forward," Umberger said.
Philly struck again quickly as Schenn finished off his 15th goal of the season on a snipe from the left hash marks at 2:11. Raffl got the lone assist.
Lehner got a high-sticking penalty at 4:14 to give the Flyers their second power play. Philly pressured but could not score.
The Flyes opened up a 3-0 lead on a slow-developing rush. Simmonds reached the 20-goal mark of the season on a right circle shot that beat Lehner to the short side. The goal was originally credited as unassisted but was later changed to give Gostisbehere and Voracek assists.
"I am just shooting the puck," Simmonds said. "I got an opportunity to play with 2 of the best players in the league. Anytime they give me the puck I got a great look. I got it on my stick; I get it off my stick, or passing it right back to them. That is all I am trying to do right now."
The play started with a Voracek flip pass out of the defensive zone that Simmonds kicked from his skates to his stick and then passed to Gostisbehere, who gained the offensive zone. Gostisbehere wound up to shoot but the puck was poke-checked away by a Sabre directly to Simmonds.
Brandon Manning took a high-sticking penalty at 10:52. Mason had to come up big twice as Buffalo generated a lot of puck movement. As the minor expired, Radko Gudas continued his binge of bad penalties with a careless high-stick on Matt Moulson. There was no blood so it was called a two-minute minor. The Flyers killed off their latest penalty as Mason made his 21st save of the game.
The Flyers scored their fourth goal of the period on a counterattacking breakaway goal by Michael Raffl, who moved left and scored on a wrister high to the glove side. Nick Cousins earned the lone assist. Before the counterattack started, Gudas had his trailing leg stuck out after a missed hit on Marcus Foligno shot near the Flyers' blueline. Foligno took exception to it, and he and Gudas fought as the Flyers celebrated the Raffl goal. The Flyers got a power play on an extra cross-checking penalty on Foligno. All of this happened at 15:57. Philly generated good pressure again but could not score.
Mason got over quickly to his left to deny a right circle shot by Ryan O'Reilly with 1:17 left in the middle frame. Shots in the second period were 14-10 Flyers; 24-20 Sabres through two periods.
Early in the third period, Umberger was accidentally taken out as he collided with teammate Nick Schultz. Shortly after that, the Sabres generated a three-shot outburst. The Flyers hung on and got at TV timeout with 13:16 left in regulation.
Right after the timeout, Mason stopped a pair of chances from the slot. He fought off a shot from distance for his 30th save, but could not hold onto the puck. The defense cleared but not out.
Buffalo finall sored on their 32nd shot of the game as a blocked shot pinballed around and went to a wide-open Jamie McGinn, who tucked it into the net. Jake McCabe and Mark Pysyk got the assists at 10:04.
The Flyers got it right back at 10:33. Cousins blocked a Justin Bailey shot and then claimed it as it bounced in the neutral zone. Cousins hit the offensive zone and stepped into a low slapshot that beat Lehner through the five hole. Cousins' first NHL goal was unassisted.
“You always remember your first one, I started pressing next to that guy, I wasn’t even trying to block it, it just sort of hit me and I got the puck and took my open shot. I’ll remember it for a while," said Cousins, who tallied a shootout goal for the Flyers last season (which does not count in his statistics).
Gudas laid out Catenacci with an open ice hit in the neutral zone with Catenacci ducked low and the puck behind him away from his stick. McCabe got an instigation minor, fighting and game misconduct. Gudas got charging and fighting majors at 16:27. As a result, the Flyers went on a three-minute penalty kill. Mason authored his 40th and 41st saves before time expired.
Shots in the third period were 18-8 in the Sabres' favor; 42-28 Buffalo for the game.
"I think we would have liked to clean up a little bit in the third and have a real strong 60 minutes. The second period definitely set us up for a nice cushion going into the third. I think we needed to put down the pedal a little harder," Mason said.
The Flyers will hold a Friday practice (likely an optional) at 11:00 a.m. at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. The team will then play a weekend back-to-back set against the New Jersey Devils (home) on Saturday afternoon and the New York Rangers (away) on Sunday evening.
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FLYERS ALUMNI PLEDGE $2 MILLION TO ASSIST SNIDER HOCKEY RINK PROJECT
The Flyers Alumni Association have pledged $2 million of support for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation's rink-building project in the Delaware Valley. The Alumni will help fund the construction of one of the new ice rinks, which will be named the Edward M. Snider/ Flyers Alumni Rink when completed.
Roughly 90 minutes prior to Thursday's Flyers vs. Sabres game, there was a symbolic check presentation ceremony from members of the Flyers Alumni Association to Snider Hockey president Scott Tharp, who was joined at the media room podium area by student athlete participants in Snider Hockey.
Brad Marsh, who jointly serves as the Flyers director of community development as well as the Flyers Alumni Association president will make the presentation on behalf of the Flyers Alumni. He was joined by Flyers club president and Alumni Association board member Paul Holmgren along with Bernie Parent, Bill Clement, Joe Watson, Bob “the Hound” Kelly, Dave “the Hammer" Schultz, Brian Propp and Chris Therien.
For more on the project, which is being funded through various Alumni fundraisers -- including the recent Alumni game in Reading, the return of the Alumni Golf Invitational and the second annual Flyers Alumni Fantasy Hockey Camp --
click here.
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ALL IN THE FAMILY
Congratulations go out to former Fyers defenseman and current TV broadcaster Chris Therien's daughter Isabella, a star player on the Cherokee High School girl's basketball team. She was featured in a
profile piece in the
Burlington County Times. Isabella has been carving out a reputation for herself as one of the top young female players in the area and has received multiple Division I NCAA offers.
Likewise, good look wishes go out to former Flyers goaltender and current local and national TV broadcaster Brian Boucher, who will be coaching the Flyers Quebec Pee-Wee team at the prestigious annual Québec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament in Québec City. The tournament began on February 10 and runs through February 21.
The local team departs tomorrow for Canada. The squad, which is made up of 18 of the best 12-year-old and 13-year-old players in the Delaware Valley, over multiple rounds of cutdowns. The process started with 200 tryout players last June.
Boucher, whose son Tyler made the team, will coach the squad along with Pat Ferrill (the senior vice president of the Flyers Skate Zone). Congratulations and best of luck to all players on the roster:
Cam Bergeman, Newark, Del.
Tyler Boucher, Haddonfield, NJ
Sam Byrd-Leitner, Collingswood, NJ
Kenny Connors, Glen Mills, Pa.
Dylan DeAngelo, West Chester, Pa.
Tommy Finley, Glen Mills, Pa.
Joshua Karnish, Marlton, NJ
Matt Lynch, Mullica Hill, NJ
Andrew Lavdas, Marlton, NJ
Tyler MacPhee, Harleysville, Pa.
Robbie Moses, West Chester, Pa.
Ryan O’Connell, Lumberton, NJ
Jan Olenginski, Lafayette Hill, Pa.
Jason Player, Mount Royal, NJ
Thomas Rockey, Mullica Hill, NJ
Daniel Sambuco, Springfield, Pa.
Jared Schaal, Medford, NJ
Jayden Sison, Paoli, Pa.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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