Holiday Cheer: Flyers down Wild for 3rd straight win

A strong start to the road trip just continued to get better on Tuesday night. The Flyers closed out the pre-Christmas portion of the road trip with another victory.

A quick start was erased by Minnesota, but the Flyers struck for three unanswered goals to pick up a 5-2 win over the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

The Flyers came roaring out of the gate. They would take the first eight shots in the game and score the first two goals.

At 7:16, Sean Couturier's strong effort led to his ninth goal of the season. He attempted a centering pass that deflected off a Minnesota defenseman for the game's first goal.

Just over two minutes later, Claude Giroux jumped on a rebound off a Luke Schenn shot and buried it for his 11th goal of the season.

The Wild answered right back, taking the next 10 shots over the remainder of the first and start of the second. On their second shot at 10:03 of the first, Marco Scandella beat Ray Emery to cut the lead to one.

Minnesota would strike early in the second. Charlie Coyle deflected a shot by Jason Pominville on the power play at 3:43 of the second to even the score.

For most of the second, the Flyers were on their heels, but they started to come to life toward the end of the period and managed to grab the go-ahead goal.

Wayne Simmonds finished off an excellent shift by the second line with a wrist shot past Darcy Kuemper to give the Flyers the lead with 4:38 left in the period.

Minnesota nearly tied the game in the first two minutes. Zach Parise threw a shot at the net and it somehow found its way in. Replay would show that the net was lifted and the puck slid under a portion of the outside of the net and was disallowed.

The Flyers added a crucial insurance goal at 5:29 of the third. Vincent Lecavalier deflected a shot from Andrew MacDonald to extend the Flyers lead to two. The assist was MacDonald's 100th NHL point.

The Flyers killed off a penalty, one of four kills on the night, as the Flyers finished the game strong to earn the win. Michael Raffl iced things with an empty-net goal with 28 seconds to play.

In total, 11 different players recorded a point. Voracek had two points to increase his NHL lead to 45. Giroux also added a point to increase their season total 40.

Emery made 22 saves in the win.

The Flyers join the rest of the NHL for the holiday break. There will be no games or practices for any team for the next three days. The Flyers return on Saturday night to face the Nashville Predators. The opening face-off is set for 8 p.m.

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.