Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux each scored twice. Matt Read and Brayden Schenn also scored. Steve Mason made 37 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Nashville Predators, 6-3, at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday night.
It was a back and forth start to the game as both teams went up and down the ice but neither team could generate much in the way of chances. The game also saw very few whistles until Radko Gudas got called for a double minor for high sticking about half way through the opening period.
The penalty killers and Mason did an outstanding job of blocking shots and keeping Nashville at bay.
Read put the Flyers ahead at 13:51 of the period. Read took a pass from Scott Laughton and went in from center ice to beat Pekka Rinne. Nick Schultz had the other assist.
Schenn extended the lead less than two minutes later. Schenn tipped in a pass from Sean Couturier after Sam Gagner took a big hit in the Nashville zone to make the play.
Mason made 10 saves in the period and the Flyers took a 2-0 lead to the locker room after 20 minutes.
The Flyers would have a shade over three minutes of power play time to begin the second period. Nashville's peanlty killers did the job and killed off the Flyers power play.
Ryan Johansen scored just after the kill to make it 2-1. Roman Josi set Johansen up in the slot and he beat Mason at 4:23 of the period.
Just after the Johansen goal, Gagner took a penalty for tripping. The Flyers penalty killers once again did a fantastic job not allowing a single shot on the Predators man advantage.
Less than a minute after the kill, Simmonds extended the Flyers lead to 3-1. Simmonds took a long stretch pass from Laughton and after being denied on the initial shot, buried the rebound for his 17th of the season.
Giroux put the Flyers ahead 4-1 at 16:15. The Flyers captain beat Rinne in the slot for his 15th of the season.
Nashville responded just 25 seconds later as Calle Jarnkrok scored his eighth of the season to cut the Flyers lead to 4-2 after two periods.
Nashville began pushing play in the third and was able to draw a few penalties through the first ten minutes and after six peanlty kills, the Flyers penalty killers finally yielded. Shea Weber blasted a shot from the point to close the gap to 4-3.
Simmonds netted his second of the game at 12:01 of the period to put the Flyers ahead 5-3. Simmonds' 18th of the season came on the power play. Shayne Gostisbehere and Giroux picked up the assists.
Giroux would get his second of the game just 1:10 later. Giroux buried a pass from Jake Voracek past Rinne to make it 6-3.
That would be all she wrote. The Flyers will be in action again on Saturday when they host the New York Rangers. Game time is at 1 p.m.
Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074.
