• Preview
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Flyers hope to rebound in Winnipeg

Feb 12, 2013 - 4:13 PM (Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Flyers will try to rebound from a poor start to a six-game road trip when they visit the Winnipeg Jets for Tuesday's battle at MTS Centre.

The Flyers recently completed a 3-0-1 homestand, but the club's road struggles continued Monday night in Toronto. Philadelphia was handed a 5-2 setback by the Maple Leafs and dropped to 1-6-0 on the road this season.

Philadelphia jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into Monday's game, but trailed Toronto 4-1 by the end of two periods. Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled from the game after allowing four goals on 14 shots and Brian Boucher turned aside 9-of-10 the rest of the way.

Wayne Simmonds and Tye McGinn scored for the Flyers, who went 0-for-3 on the power play.

"We made some bad turnovers in this game that they were able to take advantage of," said Simmonds. "We gave three pucks away and they scored three goals, there's your game right there."

The Flyers played Monday without center Sean Couturier, who was sent back to Philadelphia with a bout of the flu. The club also has recalled forward Harry Zolnierczyk from its AHL affiliate in Adirondack and he will join the team in Winnipeg.

The Jets and Flyers played a wild four-game season series in 2011-12 and Winnipeg wound up winning three of the meetings while outscoring Philly by a 21-18 margin. The clubs combined for 27 goals in the first two matchups alone and Philadelphia finally earned a win with a 5-4 overtime decision at Winnipeg in the last meeting of the season on Feb. 21.

The Jets enter Tuesday having won two of their last three games, including a rare road victory in Saturday's tilt at Ottawa.

Winnipeg used a goal from Alexei Ponikarovsky and 33 saves by Al Montoya to record a 1-0 win over the Senators at Scotiabank Place. Ponikarovsky scored at 5:57 of the third period and Montoya made 33 saves for the third shutout of his career.

The victory was just the second in six road games (2-3-1) for Winnipeg, which had a dreadful 14-22-5 away record in 2011-12. Tuesday's test kicks off a three-game homestand at MTS Centre, where the Jets are 3-2-0 this season.

Winnipeg hopes the return of defenseman Dustin Byfuglien to the lineup on Tuesday can get the club its third victory in four outings. Byfuglien sat out the previous five games with a lower-body injury, but is expected to play against the Flyers.

Byfuglien, who has three goals and four assists in six games this season, normally skates with Tobias Enstrom to form Winnipeg's top defensive pairing. Enstrom had been riding an eight-game point streak before it was snapped Saturday.

Fellow defenseman Zach Bogosian is close to making his season debut for the Jets, but he is questionable for Tuesday's contest. Bogosian has sat out the entire campaign so far while recovering from offseason wrist surgery.

On Monday, Jets head coach Claude Noel said Byfuglien "looks like a player for the game." However, Noel said the team has to "wait and see" with Bogosian.