Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Schenn’s goal lifts Flyers past Wild
Brayden Schenn scored the tiebreaking goal at 8:43 of the third period, lifting the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
PHILADELPHIA >> Brayden Schenn scored the tiebreaking goal at 8:43 of the third period, lifting the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto also scored to help the Flyers snap a three-game skid. Michael Neuvirth started and stopped six of seven shots before leaving after the first period due to an apparent injury. Steve Mason replaced him and finished with 19 saves, including a left pad save on Eric Staal in the closing seconds.
Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund scored for the Wild, who lost for the third time in four games. Devan Dubnyk had 33 saves.
On the go-ahead score, Wayne Simmonds put a between-the-legs pass from behind the net onto Schenn’s stick and Schenn waited for Dubnyk to go down before firing the puck over him for his third of the season — all on the power play.
The goal snapped Schenn’s seven-game scoring drought and came with Wild captain Mikko Koivu in the penalty box for tripping Flyers left wing Michael Raffl behind the net. The Wild entered the game with the NHL’s fifth-ranked penalty kill, but the Flyers, ranked second on the manadvantage, connected.
The Wild had a chance to tie it when Flyers center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare took an interference penalty on Koivu, but Minnesota did not record a shot on the man-advantage and fell to 2 for 25 on the road this season.
The Wild grabbed a pair of one-goal leads in the opening two periods, only to see the Flyers tie the score.
Niederreiter, who had 20 goals last season, opened the scoring just 21 seconds in when he lifted a pass from right wing Charlie Coyle over Neuvirth’s right shoulder. Neuvirth stopped the next six shots before pulling himself out of the game after the first.
The Flyers tied it with 7:33 left in the period as Manning wristed a shot from the blue line past a screened Dubnyk for his third.
With Mason in, the Wild scored on their fourth shot of the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Koivu started the play by carrying the puck into the offensive zone and making an outside-inside move on Del Zotto. Koivu backhanded a shot off the crossbar and Granlund deposited the rebound for his third.
The Flyers tied the score again with 2:15 remaining in the second on a strong rush up the ice by Del Zotto, who passed it to Michael Raffl and then saw Raffl’s return pass go off his left skate and behind Dubnyk.