The revamped Philadelphia Flyers maintained their perfect start to the season with an offense-driven 5-4 win over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
Andrej Meszaros broke a 4-4 tie with his goal at 4:40 in the third period as the Flyers improved to 3-0-0.
“It’s good to get off to this start. We want to be in this position, but we can’t stay complacent,” Philadelphia’s James van Riemsdyk said. “We have to keep getting better ... We’ve got to push the envelope.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Philadelphia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, acquired through a trade in the off-season as part of the team’s major roster shake-up, made 36 saves to edge Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo. He was at his best in the third period, when the Canucks fired 17 shots.
It was the scoring, though, that stole the show.
Claude Giroux netted his third goal in as many games in the first period, as teammates Chris Pronger and van Riemsdyk added a goal each to put the Flyers ahead 3-1.
The Western Conference defending champion Canucks (1-1-1) answered with goals from Henrik Sedin and Chris Higgins in the second to pull within 4-3 before Daniel Sedin tied the contest at 3:39 in the third.
Luongo finished with 22 saves, but lost his second start of the season.
“I think there were some good tests in the game tonight,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Penalty kill was one, our resilience was another. Protecting the lead through the third. There were some positives to take from that.”
HURRICANES 3, BRUINS 2
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Anthony Stewart and Jiri Tlusty scored third-period goals to help Carolina beat Boston.
Joni Pitkanen also scored for the Hurricanes, who never trailed and claimed their first win of the season.
Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins, whose power-play unit remained punchless. Boston came up empty on five chances with the man advantage to drop to 1-for-18 for the season.
Avalanche 3, Blue Jackets 2, SO
In Columbus, Gabriel Landeskog scored his first NHL goal with 40 seconds left and Matt Duchene had the deciding shootout goal in Colorado’s victory over Columbus.
In the shootout, Milan Hejduk matched the goal of Rick Nash, who had a goal and an assist for Columbus. Shooting second, Duchene beat Steve Mason through the leg pads.
Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov then slid to stop Jeff Carter’s shot to secure the victory.
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