Well-Rested Flyers Skate Past Panthers, 3-2
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Philadelphia Flyers took advantage of some sun and fun during their trip to Florida. The rest appears to have been time well spent.
Danny Briere, Braydon Coburn and Matt Read scored and Ilya Bryzgalov made 31 saves in the Flyers' 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.
Bryzgalov won for the fourth time in five starts. The Flyers lost 2-1 in overtime at Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, then took two days off before returning to practice Saturday.
"I thought our guys really competed well, skated well," Flyers coach Pete Laviolette said. "I thought our guys responded well and played a hard-fought game."
Evgeny Dadonov and Tomas Fleischmann scored for Florida and Jose Theodore stopped 32 shots. The Panthers were held without a point for the first time in seven games.
Read scored on a short-handed penalty shot to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Read was awarded the shot after he was hooked by Jason Garrison. Read's shot trickled through Theodore's pads at 4:14 of the third.
"I've never had a penalty- shot goal before, so it felt pretty weird out there," Read said. "Somehow it snuck through there and just barely made it over the goal line."
The call came while Florida was on a power play, and just after the Panthers failed to score on a 5-on-3 for 40 seconds. Florida forward Stephen Weiss received a game misconduct for arguing the call.
"It was a tough call for us to get and get them a two-goal lead," Garrison said. "He (Weiss) is one of our best players and a competitive guy. He was just showing his emotions."
Weiss's ejection weakened the Panthers' offense.
"I think our composure overall was not great tonight and that was a pretty good example of it, to lose our top forward for the last 10 minutes of the game," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. "Without him in the lineup, that's a pretty big hole."
Fleischmann's goal with 8 seconds left made it 3-2. Fleischmann has 12 points in his last 10 games.
The Panthers closed to 2-1 on Dadonov's goal at 10:20 of the second. Dadonov, recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Saturday, took the puck near the blue line in the Flyers' zone. He brought it down and took a wrist shot from low in the left circle that beat Bryzgalov on the stick side.
"It feels good to get back. I wanted to make some points and help the team," Dadonov said.
The Flyers opened the scoring on Briere's goal with 3:50 left in the first. James Van Riemsdyk took a shot that bounced off the right post. Briere got the rebound and lifted it high into the net.
Philadelphia made it 2-0 in the second. Maxime Talbot passed to Jakub Voracek in the right circle, and Voracek passed it to Coburn near the crease. He redirected the puck past Theodore at 6:10.
When asked, the Flyers' Chris Pronger didn't directly credit the off-time with the improved play.
"Whatever way it is, we'll take the win," Pronger said.
NOTES: The Flyers have played only two games over the last eight days. ... Flyers RW Wayne Simmonds got his 100th NHL point with an assist on Briere's goal. ... Florida RW Jack Skille left the game in the first period with a lower body injury and did not return... Weiss has played in 573 games for Florida, tying him for second-most in franchise history with Robert Svehla. Radek Dvorak is the leader with 613. ... D Erik Gudbranson, Florida's first-round pick in 2010, played Sunday after being a healthy scratch the past four games.
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