Flyers ride 3-goal 1st period for win over Coyotes

Game Events

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The Philadelphia Flyers continued their playoff push, winning their second game of a big homestand. It was two goals in quick succession, one by returning captain Claude Giroux and the other by former Arizona Coyote Sam Gagner, that gave the Flyers a commanding lead.

The Coyotes pushed back pretty hard in the second period, but were unable to find the net. The best they could do was cut the deficit to one goal in the third period, before the Flyers scored an insurance goal on an odd man rush. It would go down as a 4-2 final.

May as well start at the top. With Giroux's return, he played Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn. This was the only line who kept even in possession as the Flyers retreated into a shell in the second period. Fittingly, Giroux also scored a goal on the power play. Giroux had 5 shots on goal in all, and Schenn added two assists.

On a new second line, Sam Gagner played with some fire against his old team. He scored a goal, and looked like Alex Ovechkin when he celebrated by knocking down Michael Raffl with a flying hug. That was just one of five shots on goal by Gagner, who has three goals in his last four games. Raffl's name was also flying around in rumors before the game, but he's still a Flyer right now.

Down on the bottom six, Scott Laughton scored the first goal of the game after a clever pass by Nick Cousins sent him on a breakaway. This line of Laughton, Cousins, and Matt Read continues to make things happen. Laughton added a fight, while Cousins was the only player on the Flyers roster to finish plus-2.

The Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line picked up the rest of the ice time for the Flyers. Two things jump out for this game; Bellemare played a spirited game by scoring in his second straight and leading the team with four hits, and this line's bad Corsi almost completely comes down to bad numbers in a few minutes against Arizona's fourth line. The Bellemare line was about even in its time against the Coyotes top-nine, but was 0-7 in shot attempts against the Coyotes fourth line. Go figure.

Defense

Mark Streit grabs all the headlines for this game, racking up three assists in the first period. It feels like luck is catching back up with Streit, as he's been very active in offensive plays recently. His name will probably be thrown around in trade rumors the next few days, so buckle up for that ride.

The quiet hero of the Flyers defense against the Coyotes was Andrew MacDonald. He led the team in ice time, again, playing in all situations. Being cooped up in their own zone also led to the odd site of Shayne Gostisbehere blocking six shots.

Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning brought up the rear for the Flyers defense. Manning wasn't entrusted with too many minutes in the game, while Gudas played a quiet game by his often crazy standards. Gudas blocked five shots while leading the team in shorthanded minutes.

Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.