Avs fall to Flyers
The official game recap Philadelphia Flyers vs. Colorado Avalanche.Radko Gudas and Claude Giroux scored 19 seconds apart late in the third period to help the Philadelphia Flyers defeat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 at Pepsi Center on Thursday.
Gudas scored his fifth of the season on a shot from just inside the blue line with 5:43 left. Giroux retrieved a long rebound, skated to his right and beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov for his 21st goal of the season.
The Flyers (36-24-13), who are 7-1-2 in the past 10 games, remained in the second wild card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Detroit Red Wings also have 85 points, but Philadelphia has a game in hand.
The Avalanche (38-32-4) are three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference with a game in hand.
John Mitchell put the Avalanche in front 2-1 at 6:13 of the third with his 10th goal of the season and first since Feb. 20. Mitchell skated to the front of the net to deflect Andreas Martinsen's pass from the right corner behind Flyers goalie Steve Mason.
Brayden Schenn shot the puck off the crossbar at 5:00 of the period, shortly after Varlamov made a glove save against Gudas, who was in the high slot.
Colorado's Nick Holden and Philadelphia's Pierre-Edouard Bellemare traded second-period goals after a scoreless first period.
Holden scored at 3:05 to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead. Mikkel Boedker passed through the slot to Holden on the left side for a shot that banged off the endboards and caromed to Mikhail Grigorenko on the right side. Griorenko's spinning shot hit Holden and bounced inside the right post.
Holden's fifth goal of the season was his first since Feb. 4.
Mason made two stops at 6:40 of the first while the Avalanche were killing a Mitchell hooking penalty. Mason stopped Shawn Matthias and used his glove to deflect Gabriel Landeskog's shot off the crossbar.
Varlamov denied Wayne Simmonds' point-blank shot at 9:45 and had three saves on a Flyers power play that started at 14:34 with defenseman Francois Beauchemin off for tripping.
Bellemare tied the game at 1-1 at 12:36 with a shot from the right point for his sixth goal of the season. The Flyers outshot the Avalanche 20-9 in the second after getting outshot 15-7 in the first.
Ryan White scored into an empty net with 4.8 seconds remaining.
Philadelphia's four-game road trip (2-0-1) ends Saturday at the Arizona Coyotes. Colorado hosts Minnesota, who defeated the Calgary Flames 6-2 Thursday. The Wild have won three of the four games against the Avalanche this season.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
25/03/2016 - 05:30
