Avalanche snap Flyers' winning streak
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Philadelphia Flyers.The Colorado Avalanche continued their success when playing Eastern Conference teams Thursday, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 at Pepsi Center.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves, including several in the final 1:27 when the Flyers had an extra skater on the ice with goalie Steve Mason on the bench.
The win was Colorado's 10th in 13 games against Eastern teams and ended the Flyers' winning streak at four games.
The Avalanche thought they took a 3-1 lead at 11:01 of the third period when Jamie McGinn, who scored a first-period goal, poked the puck into the net after Mason covered it with his glove, but the referee immediately waved it off.
Varlamov kept his team in front with a stop against Scott Hartnell, who drove to the net and tried to shove the puck by Varlamov's pad with 3:24 remaining in the third.
Ryan O'Reilly gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead at 9:17 of the second period. He worked a give-and-go with Gabriel Landeskog and skated to the net. Mason tried to poke the puck away with his stick, but O'Reilly managed to get off a shot and the puck bounced off Mason's shoulder into the net.
The Flyers cut the deficit in half at 13:48 when Wayne Simmonds redirected Andrej Meszaros' shot from the left point past Varlamov.
The Avalanche nearly scored with 30 seconds left in the period when O'Reilly passed to Paul Stastny for a shot that hit the post and slid through the crease.
Varlamov made two big saves earlier in the period, stopping Hartnell's open shot that came from the right circle and stretching his body to smother Steve Downie's shot on a Flyers power play.
McGinn scored the only goal of the first period. Erik Johnson passed to Matt Duchene skating down the slot for a shot that Mason stopped, but McGinn drove to the net and put in the rebound at 11:14 for his second goal in two games.
The Flyers went on a power play at 14:13 when Cody McLeod was penalized for holding Braydon Coburn. Varlamov made four saves during the man advantage, including a pad stop against Downie, who was thwarted on a backhanded shot on a clean breakaway.
Downie and Avalanche left wing Maxime Talbot were playing against their former teams for the first time since they were traded for each other Oct. 31. Talbot drew a Sean Couturier tripping penalty earlier in the period.
The Flyers lost left wing Michael Raffl to a concussion on a hit by Landeskog in the first period.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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03/01/2014 - 06:00
