Flyers shut out hurting Penguins
PHILADELPHIA — If the Flyers continue to play as well as they did on Saturday, they’ll have little trouble making the playoffs.
Matt Read scored a pair of goals to lift the Flyers to a convincing 4-0 victory over the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
“We were looking for a game like that a long time ago where we make sure that everybody follows the game plan and everybody plays 60 minutes,” said Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who had a pair of assists. “It feels pretty good.”
Scott Hartnell and Vincent Lecavalier also scored for Philadelphia, which is in the middle of a tightly bunched pack of teams battling for a playoff spot.
The Penguins, who are comfortably atop the Metropolitan Division, were shut out for the fourth time this season.
Pittsburgh played without its thirdand fourth-leading scorers, Chris Kunitz (lower body) and James Neal (concussion). The Flyers neutralized Pittsburgh stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. “They did a lot of what we expected,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. “We weren’t able to handle it, and in all aspects of the game we weren’t good.”
Besides Kunitz and Neal, the Penguins continue to be without top winger Pascal Dupuis (knee) and defencemen Kris Letang (stroke) and Paul Martin (hand).
But Bylsma wouldn’t use injuries as an excuse.
“We have capable guys, guys who have done well for us before,” he said. “We have to find ways to win within our roles regardless of who’s in there. We weren’t able and ready to do that today.”