Wayne Simmonds Records First Ever Flyers' Season-Opening Hat Trick
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Wayne Simmonds scored three goals en route to tallying his 400th NHL point, as the Flyers beat the Sharks 5-3 to win their season opener in San Jose early Thursday morning.
The Flyers went 3-for-5 on the power play, with Simmonds scoring two of those goals.
Brian Elliott earned his first win as the Flyers goalie, stopping 32 of 35 shots.
Claude Giroux scored the first goal for the Flyers and Jake Voracek tallied three assists and a plus-1 rating, as the two played on the wings with Sean Couturier centering their newly formed line.
Defensively, Shayne Gostisbehere tied a career-high with three assists and Ivan Provorov blocked five shots in 25:35 of ice time, a game-high.
Nolan Patrick recorded three shots on goal in 13:30 of ice in his NHL debut.