Boston Beatdown: Bruins cruise to win over Flyers

Zdeno Chara scored the first goal in the Bruins 6-1 win over the Flyers on Saturday. Chara and Jerome Iginla (pictured right) each scored a pair of goals in the win. (Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com)

In the first 5:32 of Saturday game against the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers took two penalties. At 6:30 of the first, Zdeno Chara threw a pass in front that deflected off of Braydon Coburn and past Steve Mason.

It was a bad-luck goal for a bad-luck team. But there was nothing unlucky about the rest of the Flyers play on Saturday. The Bruins showed they are levels above the Flyers by rolling to a 6-1 win on Saturday at Wells Fargo Center.

Chara's 10th goal of the season, a power-play tally, opened the scoring. In the final minute of the period, Jerome Iginla added his 14th goal of the season to give the Bruins a two-goal lead.

Early in the second, the Bruins extended the lead to three on a breakaway goal by Reilly Smith, his 16th of the season. At 13:10, Patrice Bergeron scored, forcing another early exit of Mason. 

Mason made 15 saves on 19 shots before exiting for Ray Emery. 

The Flyers would get on the board mid-way through the third with a power play goal by Claude Giroux. That was quickly answered as Nick Grossmann took a four-minute, double-minor for high-sticking and the Bruins scored 10 seconds in on a point shot by Iginla for his second of the game.

Moments later, Chara added his second with help from Iginla to give the Bruins a five-goal lead.

The Bruins would focus on defense the rest of the way. Despite nearly matching the Bruins in shots, 33-26, the Flyers did not test Tuukka Rask much in an easy win for Rask. Aside from a few difficult stops, Rask had a pretty easy time making 25 saves in the win.

Chara and Iginla each scored twice for the Bruins while Iginla also added two assists for a four-point game. David Krejci also had three assists for Boston.

The Bruins were also 3-for-4 on the power play while the Flyers were 1-for-2. The Flyers new third line of Sean Couturier, Matt Read and Michael Raffl struggled again. Couturier and Read were minus-3 and Raffl was minus-2. Grossmann and Mark Streit were also minus-2. 

The Flyers have a day off on Sunday for the Flyers Wives Carnival. Then the tough schedule gets tougher as the Detroit Red Wings come into Philadelphia on Tuesday before the Flyers travel to face the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks all on the road.

Kevin Durso is the lead beat writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.