Flyers rally for season sweep of St. Louis

St. Louis jumped out to a 3-0 lead midway throught the second period. Chris VandeVelde started the comeback with a shorthanded goal. Wayne Simmonds added two of his own before Evgeny Medvedev scored the eventual winner late in the third period to give the Flyers a 4-3 win over the Blues on Monday night.

The Flyers got a quick power play when Magnus Paajarvi was whistled for high sticking just 11 seconds into the first period. It took a while for the Flyers to get set up on the man advantage but once they did they were able to generate a few shots but were unable to beat Jake Allen.

St. Louis got on the board at the at 8:16 when Robby Fabbri beat Steve Mason on a rebound. It was Fabbri's sixth goal of the season and second against Philadelphia this season. The Flyers were unable to clear their own zone and St. Louis made them pay.

Following the goal St. Louis began taking the play to Philadelphia and following a scrum along the boards they got their first power play of the night. Jakub Voracek was called for roughing at 14:03 and St. Louis would capitalize.

Kevin Shattenkirk beat Mason on a one timer at 14:51 to give the Blues a 2-0 lead. The power play  goal was his fifth of the season. 

The Blues outshot the Flyers 15-8 in the opening stanza and held the 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

St. Louis would extend the lead midway through the second period when Paajarvi netted his second goal of the season. He scored the goal on breakaway after the Flyers defenseman fell down at the St. Louis blue line.  Paul Stasny scooped up the puck and sent Paarjavi on his way.

Prior to the goal, Philadelphia had the better of the play for most of the first ten minutes of the second period.

Immediately after the goal, Claude Giroux took a hooking penalty to put St. Louis back on the power play. It was Philadelphia that would get the goal.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare made a great play in the neutral zone and went on Allen. Allen made the initial save but Chris VandeVelde buried home the loose puck for the short handed goal. It was his second of the season.

Just over two minutes later, the Flyers cut the lead to one. Voracek and Wayne Simmonds executed a perfect give and go across the St. Louis Blue line that ended with Simmonds beating Allen for his eigth goal of the season.  

Philadelphia outshot St. Louis 14-9 in the second period and the teams went to the locker with the Blues holding  3-2 lead.

It didn't take long for the Flyers to tie the game. With a minute and a half of power play time remaining to start the third, Wayne Simmonds potted his second goal of the game just 51 seconds in.  Simmonds deflected Voracek's shot in close past Allen. Shayne Gostisbehere picked up his second assist f the game on the goal.

Evgeny Medvedev put the Flyers ahead at 16:47 of the third with his second of the season. VandeVelde made a nice play along the boards to get the puck to Ryan White who fed Medvedev in the slot for the goal. 

Steve Mason made 28 saves in the win. 

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