Avalanche 1 - 3 Flyers
Final
  for this game

Mason helps Flyers move past Avs

Feb 7, 2014 - 5:14 AM Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Steve Mason turned away 38 shots to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche Thursday.

Mark Streit and Michael Raffl scored a goal apiece and Claude Giroux added an empty netter for the Flyers, who have won three straight. Sean Couturier registered two assists in the win.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the lone Avalanche goal and Semyon Varlamov allowed two goals on 34 shots for Colorado, which has lost two straight.

Following a scoreless first frame the Flyers broke through on the power play with 13:39 on the clock in the second.

Couturier passed the puck along the boards to Vincent Lecavalier, who controlled it outside the left circle before he dished to Streit, who ripped home a slapper from the point that deflected off Jan Hejda.

Philadelphia notched the deciding goal 7:05 into the third after Couturier gained possession behind the Avalanche net on an aggressive forecheck. He dished in front to an open Raffl, who slid the disc past Varlamov and gave the Flyers a 2-0 advantage.

"Well we knew we didn't bring our best game in the first period so everybody had to step up and that's what we did," said Raffl about the Flyers energy level.

With just under four minutes on the clock the Avalanche began to pull Varlamov and utilize the extra skater.

It paid off as MacKinnon put the puck past Mason from an awkward angle below the left circle and just in front of the red line with 2:50 left to play.

"Yeah, he was. He made some huge saves, I'll give him some props for that. But like I said, it's funny that a goal like that would go in and not some of the shots that he made saves on," said MacKinnon about the play of Mason.

Maybe we should have threw some cheesier shots at him from the side of the net or whatever, but we can't have too many regrets, he played well for them."

Giroux added the empty net goal after he received the disc from Wayne Simmonds with 20 seconds remaining to seal the deal.

"No. That's one of the things I mean when I say that. I don't think we had enough traffic and we didn't throw enough pucks at him. But saying that, he played an outstanding game," said Gabriel Landeskog about Mason.

Game Notes

The Flyers host Calgary Saturday in their last game before the Olympic break ... Colorado ends a four-game road trip before the Olympic hiatus against the Islanders Saturday ... Ryan O'Reilly and Landeskog picked an assist apiece for Colorado ... Lecavalier and Braydon Coburn each notched a helper for Philadelphia.






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