Sean Couturier collected one goal and two assists to lead the attack as the surging Philadelphia Flyers rode a four-goal first period en route to a 6-2 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks on home ice Saturday afternoon.
Carter Hart made 30 saves for the Flyers, who are on a 9-0-1 run. Couturier has netted four goals and nine points in a six-game point streak.
Phil Varone started the party by opening the scoring 2:44 into the affair. Michael Raffl intercepted a clearing attempt along the wall and sent a pass to Varone in the slot, and he buried the blocker-side shot.
Couturier doubled the lead at the 10:24 mark by taking advantage of a broken play. A bouncing puck came to him in the slot and he banked home a top-corner shot off the post.
Raffl made it 3-0 with a short-handed goal just 80 seconds later, electing to shoot on the two-on-one rush, and then Oskar Lindblom closed out the four-goal frame at 17:46 with a soccer goal. He directed Couturier's crossing pass with his foot and it counted.
The Ducks made a game of it with a pair of power-play goals, the first by Adam Henrique 51 seconds into the second period and the second by Nick Ritchie 4:57 into the third period, but Nolan Patrick's rebound goal with 7:45 left in the tilt quashed any comeback hopes.
Travis Konecny rounded out the scoring with 1:11 left on the clock. Konecny, Raffl and Varone all had two-point games.
Ryan Getzlaf, who became Anaheim's all-time leader in games played with 967, collected a pair of assists.
Chad Johnson allowed four goals on 14 shots and was pulled after the first period for Anaheim, which was without No. 1 goalie John Gibson due to injury. Kevin Boyle played the final two frames and made 24 saves in his NHL debut. The Ducks have lost seven straight and have only two wins in 21 games.
Early on Saturday, the Flyers acquired Byron Froese and David Schlemko from the Montreal Canadiens for Dale Weise and Christian Folin.
--Field Level Media
Anaheim | Philadelphia | |
Nick Ritchie 2 | Points | Sean Couturier 3 |
Nick Ritchie 1 | Goals | Sean Couturier 1 |
Ryan Getzlaf 2 | Assists | Sean Couturier 2 |
Nick Ritchie 1 | Power Play Goals | Nolan Patrick 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Michael Raffl 1 |
Kevin Boyle .923 | Save Percentage | Carter Hart .938 |
Kevin Boyle 24 | Saves | Carter Hart 30 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Anaheim | 32 | 2 | 2-4 | 4-5 | 12 | 28 |
Philadelphia | 40 | 6 | 1-5 | 2-4 | 10 | 36 |