Flyers Win In Detroit For First Time In 22 Years
The Philadelphia Flyers were just trying to win -- not break their long losing streak in Detroit.
James van Riemsdyk, Daniel Carcillo and Scott Hartnell scored to help Philadelphia win for the first time in Detroit in more than 22 years, 3-2 over the Red Wings on Sunday.
Philadelphia was 0-14-2 at Joe Louis Arena since Nov. 4, 1988.
"I don't think it was in our mind to get the win for that reason," said Brian Boucher, who made 25 saves. "We haven't been playing well the last four games and we wanted to get a big win."
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said he didn't mention the winless streak in Detroit before the game.
"Not one word. I don't believe in that stuff." he said. "Different players here, everything. Doesn't make sense bringing it up because you can't do anything about it."
Valtteri Filppula and Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit, which lost its second consecutive game. Jimmy Howard stopped 24 shots before being pulled in favor of Chris Osgood to start the third period. Osgood made five saves.
"I think it was the overall game. Passing game wasn't working. We were one and done all the time," Zetterberg said. "We weren't playing together as a five-man unit and they really benefited. It was a lot of whistles and a lot of breaks and it was tough to get anything going."
Philadelphia had lost three of its last four and wanted to play better defensively.
"We talked about we had to clean up the defensive zone," Carcillo said.
Filppula put Detroit on the board 51 seconds into the third period with his 10th goal. Filppula beat Boucher from the bottom of the left circle.
Boucher made an outstanding glove save on Johan Franzen, who was in the slot, 7:17 into the third.
"It came right out to him in the slot. Just tried to come out and be big in goal. Got a glove on it," Boucher said.
Zetterberg's power-play goal with 7:32 left in the third made it 3-2. He got his 14th goal with a backhand shot after picking up a loose puck in front.
"I just thought they were better than us basically for 40 minutes of the game. We started fine but I thought they were better," Red Wings' coach Mike Babcock said. "We were able to crank her up to another level in the third, for whatever reason."
Van Riemsdyk opened the scoring 51 seconds into the second period with his ninth goal. His shot from along the right wing boards deflected in off Filppula's stick.
Carcillo scored 5:32 into the middle period when he tipped in a shot from the point by Andrej Meszaros. The shot also deflected off the Red Wings' Jiri Hudler before it got to Carcillo. Hartnell made it 3-0 with 5:36 left in the second, beating Howard high on the short side from the bottom of the left circle on a turnaround shot. Hartnell has 10 goals.
"I had a feeling in that situation that the goalie would be down," Hartnell said. "So I just tried to get the puck up."
Detroit RW Patrick Eaves missed his second game because of an elbow injury.
Philadelphia enforcer LW Jody Shelley returned after serving a two-game suspension for sucker-punching Vancouver's Andrew Alberts.
Flyers' LW Ville Leino was obtained from the Red Wings in a trade last season.
Detroit D Brad Stuart was helped off the ice after taking a shot from Philadelphia's Jeff Carter to the back of the head 7 minutes into the third period. Stuart did not return. Babcock said Stuart got stitches and was being sent for a CT scan but didn't think it was be anything serious.
Zetterberg (4-7-11) and Nicklas Lidstrom (4-7-11) stretched their points streaks to seven games.
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