Flyers Top Jets 5-2 For 3rd Straight Victory
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Wayne Simmonds, Chris VandeVelde, Nick Schultz and Brayden Schenn scored, leading the Philadelphia Flyers to a 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.
Sean Couturier added an empty-netter as Philadelphia won for the fourth time in five games while trying to make a desperate run at a playoff berth.
Mathieu Perreault scored twice for the Jets.
Schultz snapped a tie game in the second period with his first goal of the season, ending a 125-game drought. Petra Straka got his first NHL point on the assist, and Ryan White also had his first assist of the season on the goal.
Steve Mason made 36 saves for his second win in two games, though his first as a starter since Jan. 8. He had been sidelined with a knee injury and got the win against Arizona on Tuesday in relief of a shaky Ray Emery.
Schultz, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound defenseman, signed with Philadelphia in the offseason. He had 10 assists in 47 games this season and had not scored since he played for Edmonton on April 28, 2013. He had just five assists in 60 games last season.
But Schultz was there to pounce on a loose puck and beat Michael Hutchinson, who had a shutout in his last start, for a 3-2 lead.
The Flyers held on — and held off Perreault — from there.
Perreault scored a pair of tying goals in the first period. He pounded in a rebound and fired a slapper from the right circle about 8 1/2 minutes later for his 16th and 17th goals of the season.
VandeVelde's seventh goal of the season came when he knocked in a loose puck from a scrum in front of the net for a 1-0 lead. Simmonds scored his 18th on the power play for a 2-1 lead midway through the first.
Schenn made it 4-2 on a one-timer early in the third for his 11th goal this season.
Mason seemed fully recovered from a bout with the flu and the knee injury that sidelined him for six games. He settled down after a shaky first and stopped all 11 shots in the second.
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