Flyers Rout Slumping Red Wings, 7-2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Brayden Schenn scored a pair of goals to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 7-2 rout of the slumping Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.
Wayne Simmonds, Nicklas Grossman, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Matt Read and Zac Rinaldo also scored for the Flyers, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
In the last 14 games, Philadelphia is 5-0-3 against current playoff teams while 0-5-1 against non-playoff teams.
Philadelphia, which matched a season-high for goals in a game, stood four points out of a playoff spot just seven days ago but plummeted to 10 points back of the Bruins with four straight losses that began with last Saturday's overtime defeat in Boston.
Justin Abdelkader and Erik Cole scored for Detroit, which opened a four-game road trip by losing its fourth game in the last five.
The Red Wings were defeated for the 10th straight time on the Flyers' home ice. Detroit's last victory in Philadelphia came during Game 2 of the 1997 Stanley Cup finals.
Schenn scored his second goal just 11 seconds into the third period on a rebound after Jakub Voracek's shot went off Jimmy Howard's pad from a sharp angle to make it 4-1. Fans littered the ice with hats, thinking it was Schenn's third goal. However, just as the hats were being cleared off the ice, PA announcer Lou Nolan announced a scoring change to Philadelphia's first goal, which originally was credited to Schenn but changed to Simmonds.
Bellemare's tally on a rebound seven minutes later gave Philadelphia a four-goal lead before Cole's power-play deflection with 9:03 left pulled Detroit within 5-2. Read and Rinaldo scored within a minute of each other late in the period to complete the scoring.
Detroit dominated the second period, outshooting Philadelphia 18-6, but each team finished with one goal apiece. Abdelkader pulled Detroit within 2-1 4:14 into the period when he got in alone against Steve Mason after a long pass from Henrik Zetterberg and beat Mason through the five-hole. But Schenn made it a two-goal game with 6:21 remaining in the second when he scored on a rebound from Howard's doorstep on the power play.
Howard saved Claude Giroux's initial shot from the left circle and also stopped Simmonds' follow attempt. But the rebound found Schenn, who backhanded the puck into an empty net. Prior to Schenn's goal, Mason kept Detroit from tying the game with a strong, glove save on Tomas Tatar's wrist shot from the slot. Simmonds gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead 5:22 into the first period on the power play when he deflected Mark Streit's shot from the point through Howard's legs. The goal, which originally was awarded to Schenn, snapped an 0-for-10 home skid on the power play for the Flyers, who entered 1-for-19 on the man-advantage overall in their last seven games.
It was the ninth straight game in which Detroit has allowed a power-play goal, its worst streak since surrendering nine in a row on the man-advantage in December 2010. Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg didn't score for the 15th straight game, marking the longest stretch of his career. He assisted on Abdelkader's tally.
Notes: Flyers forward R.J. Umberger will have surgery Wednesday on his right hip and will be out 10 weeks. Giroux ended a three-game stretch without a point with a pair of assists. Detroit has been outscored (44-17) during their losing streak in Philadelphia. Flyers D Michael Del Zotto (upper body) missed his fourth straight game. Detroit F Stephen Weiss returned to the lineup after two games as a healthy scratch, replacing Tomas Jurco, who took a stick to the face in Thursday's loss to Columbus. Jonas Gustavvson (concussion), Darren Helm (upper body) and Alexey Marchenko (upper body) also sat for Detroit.
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