Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves, while Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier scored to lead the Philadelphia Flyers over the Carolina Hurricanes by a 2-1 score Tuesday night at RBC Center in Raleigh, NC.
Bobrovsky, getting the call in place of Ilya Bryzgalov for just his 13th start in the club's 41st game of the season, made it obvious early that he was on his game. He was called upon to make difficult stops on Eric Staal and Jiri Tlusty in rapid succession in the contest's first minute, and showed a brash confidence throughout.
Following a scoreless first period, Schenn, who scored his first career goal on Jan. 2 at the Winter Classic, picked up a Wayne Simmonds rebound in front of the Carolina net, and chipped it up and over a fallen Cam Ward and under the crossbar to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 4:20 of the second period. After having not recorded a single point while battling injuries in his first eight games this season, Schenn now has picked up points in three of the last five contests.
Despite a high number of shots on goal and some quality scoring chances, Schenn's goal held up until eight minutes after Schenn's goal.
Just nine seconds after Flyers' defenseman Kimmo Timonen was whistled for interfering with recently recalled forward Jerome Samson, the 24-year-old would score his first career NHL goal. Bobrovsky had made two stops on booming slap shots, one off the stick of Staal and the other by Justin Faulk, but couldn't control the rebounds on either. The result was half of an empty net with which to shoot for Samson, who quickly snapped a shot past the defenseless Bobrovsky to tie the score at 1-1 at the 12:37 mark of the middle frame.
Samson is the fifth player to have scored their first career NHL goals against the Flyers this season, with the previous being New Jersey's Adam Henrique, the Rangers' Carl Hagelin, Montreal's Louis Leblanc, and Chicago's Andrew Shaw.
The goaltenders were matching each other, save for save, until Philadelphia gained the lead for good thanks to the efforts of a couple of rookies early in the third period. Harry Zolnierczyk hustled down the puck and sent Couturier in on the right wing side in the Carolina zone. Couturier whipped a wrist shot from the right hash marks, beating Ward to the far side for his seventh goal of the year. Couturier has goals in consecutive games, and has picked up points in four of the six games he has played since returning from a concussion. It was the 19-year-old's only shot on goal of the game in just 9:58 of ice time, but he made it count by registering his first career game-winning goal.
Zolnierczyk similarly didn't get much time on ice (7:00), but he did manage to get four shots on Ward, blocked a shot, was credited with a takeaway, and most importantly, assisted on Couturier's game-winner.
As the Flyers nursed the one-goal lead late in regulation and with Ward pulled for an extra attacker, Philadelphia's defense turned the puck over in their own zone, only to be redeemed by Bobrovsky, who made a tremendous save on a blistering Staal one-timer from the right faceoff circle with less than a minute left in regulation to preserve the victory.
The win was Peter Laviolette's 100th win as head coach of the Flyers. He is now 100-59-21 with the club.
Philadelphia improved their road record to a sizzling 15-6-2, and kept pace with the conference-leading New York Rangers with the win. The Flyers trail the Blueshirts by four points (58-54). Bobrovsky increased his excellent numbers this year to 9-3-1, with a 2.45 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.
Even though he stopped 35 of 37 Philadelphia shots, Ward dropped to 14-16-6, as the Hurricanes fell to the bottom spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Flyers' top line of Claude Giroux, Jaromir Jagr, and Scott Hartnell was held off the score sheet for a third consecutive game, but the youngsters were there to pick them up.
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