Steve Mason got the shutout on Saturday, but it was his first win in 4 decisions (0-2-2), including the loss to Ottawa where he allowed 4 goals on 31 shots.
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Philadelphia outshot Ottawa 18-5 in the second period, and went back to the locker room up 3-2. Mason’s now delivered save marks of. For a team that is often accused of making the “safer” play when drafting, the Senators took a bit of a risk on the lesser-known Zibanejad and although his journey has been a bit rockier than that of Couturier in terms on National Hockey League presence, Zibanejad trails Couturier by just 7 points despite playing 82 fewer career games.
He was also apparently aware that the Flyers have now strung together their first three-game winning streak of the season. “We haven’t won too many in a row but we’re starting to build our confidence and you can really tell everyone has got their head up”.
For the second straight home game and second time in 10 days the Ottawa Senators will play host to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight.
The teams traded first-period goals less than three minutes apart, with the Flyers jumping in front at 14:27 on Gostisbehere’s fourth goal of the season, only to be followed by Smith’s tying score at 17:17.
Since returning to the lineup, Medvedev “has made a real effort in terms of his one-on-one competitiveness, his puck battles”, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said after Monday’s practice in Voorhees. He took a pass from Claude Giroux and skated way down into the right faceoff circle before wristing a shot top corner past a surprised Craig Anderson. Simmonds’ goal with 3:25 left in the second period snapped a 2-2 tie and gave the Flyers the lead for good.
Minutes later, Luke Schenn tried to wrap the puck around the boards behind his net and out of the zone but the puck was intercepted 10 feet inside the blue line by Cody Ceci, who fed Smith for a one-timer to tie the game. “For sure, we’re playing some better hockey, we trust each other more, we’re playing more in the system and we’re finding ways to close games”.
Simmonds’ season-high outburst ended a six-game point drought.
This is the player the Flyers thought they were getting when they signed free-agent defenseman Evgeny Medvedev in the offseason. This is a guy who was kept as an 18/19 year old who was in that realm of being too good to send down but not really fully developed offensively.
Notes: Forward Colin Greening and defenceman Patrick Wiercioch were scratches for the Senators.
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The Senators jumped out early on the Flyers, but the bend-don’t-break approach seemed to work nicely.
