Flyers Hot Start Leads Win Over Blues

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Slow starts have been a problem for the Flyers and they had talked throughout the week about how that needed to change. They put together their best start in weeks on Saturday afternoon.

Behind two quick first-period goals, the Flyers took an early lead and never looked back, defeating the St. Louis Blues, 6-3, at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers opened up the game with a very strong start, and wasted no time turning it into a goal.

In his first shift in the NHL, Tyrell Goulbourne finished on two good hits on Blues defensemen. His second hit knocked the puck loose to Scott Laughton, who fired a shot past Jake Allen to open the scoring at 2:15 of the first. The goal was unassisted.

Just over four minutes later, the Flyers kept the pressure on and started up on an odd-man rush. Claude Giroux attempted to feather a pass over to Travis Konecny, but got some luck to go his way as the pass hit off the backside of Colton Parayko and sailed over Allen to make it 2-0 Flyers.

The Flyers had two power play opportunities later in the first, but failed to score on both. After 20 minutes, the Flyers had a 16-7 advantage in shots.

The second period played out very similar to the first. After a few minutes of good back-and-forth chances, the Flyers started to cash in again.

First, Jake Voracek pushed a pass to Jordan Weal with space ahead of him. Weal went in on goal and made a nice move on Allen to score for his fifth goal of the season to make it 3-0.

Just over three minutes later, some skilled passing by the top line produced another goal. Travis Konecny led the puck to Giroux, who entered the zone with Sean Couturier cutting to the net. Giroux saucered a pass over to Couturier for the tap-in goal, his 20th of the season. The goal also produced Couturier's 39th point of the season, matching his career-high.

The second period didn't come without a blemish to mar the dominant effort. The Blues got a two-on-one and Ivan Barbashev was able to rifle a nice backhand shot over Brian Elliott to get the Blues on the board with 5:04 to play in the period. 

The Flyers did have to kill a penalty in the final four minutes of the period, and did successfully.

Shots were 29-16 Flyers through 40 minutes.

The Blues didn't waste any time making it a game again to start the third. Just 12 seconds into the period, Vladimir Tarasenko surged into the Flyers zone and centered a pass to Paul Stastny for the quick strike to cut the Flyers lead to two.

The Flyers fended off the Blues push until a power play gave them a chance to put the finishing touches on this one.

A point shot by Shayne Gostisbehere was deflected in by Wayne Simmonds to make it a three-goal game again.

The Blues didn't go quietly, pulling the goalie with over five minutes to play. They scored shortly after, as Colton Parayko's shot through a screen beat Elliott to cut the lead to two again.

The Flyers held off the late push again, and then pushed for an empty-net goal to seal the win. After four good chances missed the net or were blocked, Couturier finally iced the game with the goal into the empty cage, his second of the game and 21st of the season.

Elliott made 28 saves in the win. Allen stopped 34 of 39 shots in the loss.

Giroux had three points in the game, bringing his season total to 51. Couturier's two goals extended his career-high in goals and gave him a new career-high in points for a season at 40. 

The Flyers are back in action on Sunday afternoon, against the Buffalo Sabres at 1 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Scott Laughton (7) (Unassisted) 2:15
• PHI Claude Giroux (14) (Ivan Provorov) 6:42

2nd Period

• PHI Jordan Weal (5) (Jake Voracek) 8:32
• PHI Sean Couturier (20) (Giroux, Travis Konecny) 11:45
• STL Ivan Barbashev (1) (Paul Stastny, Vladimir Tarasenko) 14:56

3rd Period

• STL Stastny (9) (Tarasenko, Barbashev) 0:12
• PHI Wayne Simmonds (14) PP (Shayne Gostisbehere, Giroux) 11:18
• STL Colton Parayko (4) (Joel Edmundson, Alexander Steen) 15:29

Game Statistics