Giroux Leads The Flyers To 3-1 Victory Over Canadiens
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Claude Giroux had two goals, backup Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 on Friday.
Jakub Voracek also scored for the Flyers, who got all of their offense in the second period. Bobrovsky improved to 5-1-1.
Giroux now has 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) on the season. He entered the game second in the league behind Toronto's Phil Kessel.
Petteri Nokelainen scored and Carey Price made 33 saves for Montreal.
Bobrovsky made his sixth start and eighth appearance in 22 games. He replaced Ilya Bryzgalov in Philadelphia's overtime win against the Islanders on Wednesday.
Bobrovsky's best stop Friday came with six minutes remaining when he stoned Erik Cole from point-blank range with a left leg save.
Bryzgalov, who signed a $51 million, nine-year deal in the offseason, has been pedestrian to this point. He is 8-5-2 with a 2.89 goals-against average. Earlier in the season, he complained about a complete lack of confidence.
The Flyers outshot Montreal 18-5 during their big second period. All three of Philadelphia's goals came in the final 6 minutes, 48 seconds.
Giroux controlled a deflection off the back boards and deposited it off Price's back. Voracek put Philadelphia ahead 4½ minutes later, beating Price to the stick side with a one-timer after receiving a pretty pass from Kimmo Timonen from behind the net.
Giroux gave the Flyers a two-goal advantage, scoring with 5.9 seconds left in the period. Voracek did a good job of digging the puck out of the corner and passing back to the blue line, where Braydon Coburn took a hard shot that deflected off Price to the right circle. Giroux was waiting there and wristed the puck past the diving Price, who couldn't get back to the far side of the goal in time.
Montreal opened the scoring with 1:46 remaining in the first period. Nokelainen picked up a loose puck just outside of the slot and fired a wrister past Bobrovsky.
Philadelphia outshot Montreal 36-24.
NOTES: Montreal killed all four of Philadelphia's power plays and has allowed just two goals in opponents' last 52 attempts. . Philadelphia LW James van Riemsdyk did not play and will be out one to two weeks with an upper body injury. . Flyers RW Jaromir Jagr missed his third game in the last four with a lower body injury. Jagr, whose streak of 264 straight games ended Nov. 19, played Wednesday but was held out of the lineup against Montreal. . Flyers captain Chris Pronger missed his third straight game with a virus. . Voracek has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in his last eight games. . Philadelphia announced its roster for the NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game against the Rangers on Dec. 31 at Citizens Bank Park. Among the Flyers alumni playing will be Bob Clarke, Eric Lindros and John LeClair.
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