Jakub Voracek celebrates with Steve Downie after putting the Flyers ahead 4-3 in the third period of Saturday's 5-3 win over Phoenix. (Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com)
The Flyers may have been flat offensively in their last game, but picked it right back up Saturday in a 5-3 come-from-behind win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
Good news for the Flyers, considering they were short two offensive players for the game in Matt Read and Michael Raffl.
After a scoreless first period, the teams combined for five goals in the second frame. Rob Klinkhammer and Lauri Korpikoski scored 1:25 apart, prompting Craig Berube to use the team’s lone timeout. The Flyers responded on the first shift afterwards, as Scott Hartnell scored his ninth of the season 17 seconds later to cut the Coyotes’ lead in half.
Mikkel Boedker restored the Coyotes’ two-goal lead, but with 2:45 to go until intermission, Brayden Schenn scored his 10th of the season, cutting the Coyotes’ lead to one as time expired.
Just over four minutes into the final stanza, Wayne Simmonds tied the game on the power play — the first power play goal for the Flyers since last Saturday’s win over Edmonton. The goal was also Simmonds’ eighth in his last six games.
After a rare defensive zone turnover by Keith Yandle, Jakub Voracek gave the Flyers their first lead with 8:08 to go. The Flyers killed a tense, late delay of game penalty to Steve Downie, and a Claude Giroux empty-netter sealed the win.
Steve Mason turned aside 26 of 29 shots, while Mike Smith made 23 saves on 27 shots. The Flyers were 1-3 on the power play, while the Coyotes went 0-4.
Schenn and Voracek became the fourth and fifth Flyers respectively to reach the double-digit mark in goals for the season. Voracek also assisted on Simmonds’ goal, and was the only Flyer to record a multi-point game. Vincent Lecavalier assisted on Schenn’s goal, meaning he is now two away from 500 in his career.
The win puts the Flyers at 4-1 on their current road trip, and with Washington’s 5-3 loss to Minnesota earlier in the evening, the Flyers now tie for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Next up for the Flyers is the final game of their six-game road swing Tuesday night against the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.
Rob Riches is a contributor for Flyerdelphia. You can follow him on Twitter @Riches61.
