Flyers 0 - 1 Blues
Final - 2OT
  for this game

Mason ShO wasted as Blues nip Flyers, 1-0, in SO

Mar 13, 2015 - 5:27 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - T.J. Oshie and Vladimir Tarasenko both scored in the shootout, ruining a brilliant 35-save effort by Steve Mason in regulation and overtime, and St. Louis claimed a 1-0 decision over Philadelphia at Scottrade Center.

Brian Elliott turned aside 28 shots to tie a franchise record with his 20th shutout for the Blues, who provided head coach Ken Hitchcock with his 700th win as a head coach against the team which he led from 2002-2006.

Hitchcock's record with his current club stretched to 167-74-25. He won 277 games with Dallas (1996-2002), 131 for Philadelphia and 125 guiding Columbus (2006-10).

"It's been fun," Hitchcock admitted. "It doesn't feel like it's been very long. I've really enjoyed most of the stops and I've really enjoyed working with this group."

Mason was credited with his third shutout of the year, but lost his second 1-0 shootout result for the Flyers, who suffered a similar defeat in their last trip to St. Louis back on Apr. 1.

The Philadelphia netminder stopped all 16 shots he faced through two periods, then came up with 19 more through the game's final 25 minutes.

Mason's best stop occurred just after the midway point of the third. He dove from left to right to rob Jaden Schwartz -- who had an open net at which to shoot after a slick pass from Tarasenko -- by smothering the puck with his right pad.

Elliott had to be sharp late as well, turning away a right-circle drive from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare halfway through overtime and stopping Carlo Colaiacovo from the left wing on the next shift.

"It's a whole team thing. You're not up there alone," Elliott said of reaching that key milestone.

Philly failed to solve Elliott despite three power-play chances in the opening period.

Mason kept his edge when he turned away a Paul Stastny chance and immediately sprawled across his crease to rob Dmitrij Jaskin before the eight-minute mark of the second.

"He was good," Jaskin said of Mason. "We got two points at the end, that's the most important thing. But it was probably 20 scoring opportunities we had."

Alex Steen appeared to have given his club a lead, but while he beat Mason, the puck struck the right post flush on a power play with 40 seconds before the second intermission.

Game Notes

Hitchcock joined Scotty Bowman (1,244), Al Arbour (782) and Joel Quenneville (745) as the only head coaches in NHL history to win at least 700 regular- season games ... Elliott pulled into a tie with Jaroslav Halak for the club's all-time shutout mark ... St. Louis improved to 9-3 in shootouts and Philadelphia fell to 3-8 ... Mason also wound up on the wrong side of a 1-0 game decided in a shootout back on Nov. 24 at Uniondale, where he stopped all 46 Islanders chances ... Prior to the contest, the Flyers announced the signing of former Cornell forward Cole Bardreau to an entry-level contract.






Related News