Flyers beat Canucks 4-1 for their 3rd straight win
Canucks forward out with fractured foot
VANCOUVER (CP) — Shayne Gostisbehere and Claude Giroux each had a goal and an assist for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Michael Raffl and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers (11-11-7), who won their third straight after a dreadful 10-game losing streak. Jakub Voracek had three assists.
Philadelphia’s Brian Elliot made 36 saves for his 200th NHL victory.
Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks (14-11-4), who had a three-game win streak snapped on the last night of a three-game home stand.
Jacob Markstrom, coming off his first career NHL shutout, stopped 22 shots for Vancouver.
The Canucks jumped all over the Flyers in the first period, outshooting Philadelphia 9-0 until Markstrom made his first save, an impressive stick save, around the eight-minute mark. The Canucks goalie was busy after that, making seven saves in a single Flyers power-play chance.
Philadelphia scored soon after on the second of three straight man advantages in the first. Gostisbehere fired from the blue line, the puck caromed off Sam Gagner’s stick and cleared traffic to open the scoring at 14:08.
It was 2-0 only 45 seconds into the second when Voracek won a puck battle along the boards, skated through the slot and then dished to Raffl, who tipped in the puck. Vancouver’s penalties cost the club again midway in the second, this time with Sven Baertschi off for interference. Giroux one-timed a pass from Gostisbehere and the Flyers had a comfortable 3-0 lead.
The Canucks got on the board with just 19 seconds left in the second. Boeser picked up a Baertschi rebound at the top of the Flyers crease and backhanded it in. The goal, Boeser’s 14th of the year, stood after being reviewed for interference, and Vancouver had some life going into the third.
But the Flyers kept coming in the third, as Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev successfully broke up a 2-on-1 to help keep it a two-goal game midway through the period. Alex Edler’s third trip to the box, with six minutes left, put Vancouver back on the defensive. Simmonds added the empty-netter insurance with just over a minute
Vancouver forward Bo Horvat will miss up to six weeks with a right foot fracture, the Canucks said Thursday.
The team said a more concrete timeline for Horvat’s recovery will be available after he sees a specialist.
Horvat was injured in the third period of Vancouver’s 3-0 win over Carolina on Tuesday when he appeared to jam his foot into the boards after being checked.
The 22-year-old Horvat is in his fourth season with the Canucks.
He has 10 goals and 10 assists in 28 games this season and is coming off a 20-goal, 32-assist campaign in 2016-17. left to play.
Notes: Alex Burmistrov drew back in the Canucks lineup after being a healthy scratch for three straight games. The Flyers were without Brandon Manning (upper body) and Michal Neuvirth (lower body).