Flyers hold off late surge, beat Avalanche

When the day began, the Flyers had two of the league leaders in assists. Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek were tied with 13. Voracek extended his lead there while Giroux padded his points total in a different way.

It had been since Oct. 18 since Giroux had last scored a goal, an overtime winner in Dallas.

Giroux scored twice, Voracek had three assists. But it was almost all for naught as the Avalanche scored three third-period goals to make things interesting.

Steve Mason and the Flyers held off the late surge to defeat the Avalanche, 4-3, on Saturday at Wells Fargo Center.

The two teams skated to an even first period until the final minute when the game turned in the Flyers favor.

Luke Schenn was sent awkwardly into the boards by Nathan MacKinnon, resulting in a major penalty for boarding and giving the Flyers five minutes of power-play time.

With 2.9 seconds left in the first, Giroux scored his first on a wrist shot from the left circle to give the Flyers the lead. Wayne Simmonds and Jake Voracek had assists on the goal. With the assist, Voracek extended his points streak to eight games.

In the second, Giroux set up Simmonds for a power-play goal at 2:48 from just outside the crease.

The Flyers would pad the lead at 11:24 as Brayden Schenn buried a rebound after Matt Read just missed a goal himself to make it a 3-0 game.

Giroux would score his second on the power play after a great pass from Vincent Lecavalier at 16:22.

Mason's shutout bid ended early in the third as former Flyer Max Talbot scored after coming up with a loose puck at 2:29, making it a 4-1 game.

Alex Tanguay managed to slip a shot past Mason to cut the lead to two at 6:46 of the third for his sixth goal of the season.

With just over eight minutes to play, Talbot stole the puck off R.J. Umberger and fed Zach Redmond in the slot. Redmond's shot beat Mason and cut the lead to one.

Mason stopped the 36 other shots from the Avalanche to help the Flyers hold on for the win.

The Flyers were 3-for-6 on the power play and continued their success on the penalty kill at home, killing all three Colorado power plays.

Luke Schenn did not returning following the hit by MacKinnon with an upper-body injury.

The Flyers improved to 7-5-2 on the season with the win and also claimed their third straight win of the homestand. It also marked their fifth straight home win dating back to Oct. 25.

The Flyers now get five days off before their next game, also at home, against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Friday's game will begin at 7 p.m.

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