Philadelphia Flyers pound Minnesota Wild 5-1 with a stunning performance - NHL Update
The Philadelphia Flyers offence finally revved up in gear to pound the Minnesota Wild into submission with a comprehensive 5-1 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers last time out on the rink lost 4-2 away to the Nashville Predators but returned back to home on Tuesday to take out their frustrations on a shocked Minnesota Wild to move up to fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 27-13-4 record.
Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov made 25 saves during the game in a wonderful performance but was not able to keep out Wild forward and ex-Flyer Darroll Powe whose goal ended Bryzgalov’s bid for a shutout. Overall the Flyers were comfortable throughout the game
outshooting the Wild 34-26.
"Every line was cycling, every line was getting shots, it was a big win," Flyers forward Scott Hartnell said.
Minnesota saw their record drop to 22-17-7 with 51 points but luckily due to results elsewhere in the league still occupy the final playoff spot of the Western Conference.
"It's ridiculous on our part," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "Just because bad things happen, we can't play our game. We have to fix that."
The Flyers took the lead early in the first period as Kimmo Timonen took full advantage of a power play at 2:56 to break the deadlock. Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr provided the assist.
The first period ended at 1-0 with the score line remaining the same for the first ten minutes of the second period. The Flyers were shorthanded at 8:52 as Andrej Meszaros was penalised for boarding but that did not stop their offence.
Matt Read took possession of the puck and found himself on a two-on-one break with Sean Couturier. Read squared the puck for Courtier who made no mistake to beat Wild goaltender Josh Harding for a brilliant shorthanded goal at 10:27.
The Wild pegged back the Flyers to a single goal as Darroll Powe beat Bryzgalov to make it 2-1.
This was to be the final goal for the Wild as their opponents shifted into a higher gear. Braydon Coburn beat Harding at 12:47 to regain the Flyers two goal advantage and four minutes later Courtier was back on the score sheet with a wonderful power play
goal to make it 4-1.
"He's never on the wrong side of the puck," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "His goals have been impressive."
The Flyers were not done yet and in the third period Jakub Voracek made it 5-1 effectively ending the game and put the Wild out of their misery.
Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov waxed lyrical after the game about the team’s performance and could not have been happier with the win.
"The whole team was satisfied with the way we played," Bryzgalov said. "It was a great team win. All four lines were rolling, playing physical and we were safe and sound in the defensive zone."
The Flyers welcome the New York Islanders on Thursday while the Wild will face the Toronto Maple Leafs and hope that they win to consolidate their playoff spot.
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