Flyers dig deep, defeat Blackhawks in Chicago

Coming off of last night's emotional 4-3 victory over Detroit, the Flyers needed to put forth a great effort to get two important points. The Flyers did just that on Wednesday night. Michal Neuvirth was outstanding, the Flyers came back twice before Radko Gudas put them ahead for good and the Flyers held on for a 3-2 win.

Marian Hossa put Chicago ahead with his 11th goal of the season. Shayne Gostisnehere broke his stick on a shot attempt on the power play. Hossa took a pass immediately after and went in on Neuvirth alone for the short handed goal. 

A  minute and a half later the Flyers fpound themselves short handed as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was in the box for high sticking. The one man down situation turned into a two man down just seven seconds later when Chris VandeVelde got called for delay of game.

Michal Neuvirth made at least two outstanding saves during the kill and the Flyers were able to kill off 1:53 of five on three penalty time.

The Flyers got their second power play of the game at 17:01 of the period when Artemi Panarin was called for interference. This time they capitalized. Ryan White got his ninth of the season at 18:48 to tie the score at 1-1. Andrew MacDonald took a shot from the point that hit White's skate and past Scott Darling.

Chicago started the second period with 1:30 of power play time. The Flyers were able to kill of the penalty.

Chicago would keep the pressure on however and it paid off. Jonathan Toews netted his 25th of year at 4:58. Toews got his own rebound and was able to lift the puck in tight. Patrick Kane picked up the lone assist. 

Philadelphia battled back yet again when Brayden Schenn scored his 24th of the season at 13:02. Schenn buried a one timer home on a mini two on one with Claude Giroux. Wayne Simmonds picked up the second assist. 

Both teams exchanged chances the rest of the period, including a few goal posts hit, but neither could break through and the teams went to the locker room tied at 2-2. 

Through the first ten minutes of the third it was a very tight checking game. That changed when Radko Gudas flipped a shot on net that ended up behind Darling. The puck hit off of Christian Erhoff's stick and past the Chicago goalie for a 3-2 Flyers lead. Sean Couturier and Michael Raffl picked up the assists on the third goal of the season for Gudas.

The rest of the way it was the Michal Neuvirth show. The Flyers net minder made multiple saves in the final minutes of the game to preserve the win.

In total Neuvirth made 24 saves on 26 shots.  The Flyers are in action again on Saturday when the host the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074