Flyers 1 - 2 Avalanche
Final
  for this game

Varlamov, Avs edge Flyers

Jan 3, 2014 - 5:58 AM Denver, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves to backstop the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Pepsi Center.

Ryan O'Reilly and Jamie McGinn scored the goals for Colorado, which has won consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 29-30.

Wayne Simmonds was the only player to beat Varlamov, who stood tall when the Flyers made a late push.

Steve Mason stopped 29 shots for Philadelphia, which had won the first three stops of its six-game road trip and four straight overall.

"We could have done some better things as a team, but I thought we played pretty decent," Simmonds said.

The Avalanche capitalized on a turnover to open the scoring. Erik Johnson led a rush on the counterattack and dished to Matt Duchene. Mason turned away Duchene's shot, but kicked a rebound right to McGinn and he buried it at 11:14 of the first period.

"(Johnson) made a great play stepping up, breaking up the play and then skating hard," McGinn said. "(Duchene) drove the middle like we're suppose to, hard, and got the puck on net. I'm just coming in for the loose change."

Colorado went up 2-0 near the midway point of the second period. O'Reilly dropped the puck to Gabriel Landeskog and collected the captain's return feed before firing a shot off Mason that fluttered into the net at 9:17.

Simmonds redirected Andrej Meszaros' point shot to put the Flyers on the board with 6:12 to play in the second.

Game Notes

Colorado is now 2-0-1 on a season-long, seven-game homestand ... Thursday marked the Avalanche's 1,400th regular-season game since the team moved to Denver in 1995 ... The Flyers lost their sixth straight game in Denver ... Philadelphia had scored three goals or more in eight consecutive games ... Flyers rookie forward Michael Raffl left the game with a concussion suffered on a first-period hit by Landeskog ... Philadelphia was already playing without forward Matt Read (upper-body injury).






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