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Flyers beat Canucks in home opener

Oct 13, 2011 - 3:30 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Andrej Meszaros scored the game-winner early in the third period as the Philadelphia Flyers won their home opener with a 5-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Claude Giroux continued his torrid start to the season with his third goal in as many games along with two assists while Chris Pronger added a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who have won all three of their games this season.

"I think it's a good start, but because we're a young team we're going to have moments where we're a little lax," said Pronger.

Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 36 shots to help Philadelphia improve to 9-4-1-1 in its 15 home openers at Wells Fargo Center.

Daniel and Henrik Sedin along with Mikael Samuelsson each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who were coming off a 3-2 win over Columbus on Monday. Roberto Luongo made just 22 saves in defeat.

"We are our own worst enemy, if we aren't making mistakes or putting ourselves down we feel confident that we can beat anybody," said Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa. "Five on five we are strong, with the man advantage we are strong, it's just mistakes right now."

This game featured the past two teams to lose in the Stanley Cup Finals as Vancouver was downed by Boston in seven games last season while the Flyers dropped a six-game series to the Blackhawks in 2010.

Daniel Sedin had tied the game 3:39 into the third, but Philly went ahead 1:01 later when Danny Briere skated into the zone down the right wing, slammed on the brakes at the top of the right circle and centered the puck for a streaking Meszaros, who skated to the inside left circle and lasered the puck into the right corner.

Philadelphia didn't make things easy on itself, though, as the team had to kill off four consecutive penalties to hang on for the win.

"I think there were some good tests in the game tonight," said Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette. "The penalty kill was one, our resiliency was another and protecting the lead through the third. Bryz got a lot heavier workload tonight than he had in the previous two games and I thought that he answered. So, there was some positives to take from that."

said Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette. "Especially from us in that third period. We have to do better than that because we don't want to go to the box that much."

The first goal of the game went to the Flyers as a dump-in from Pronger took a fortuitous bounce off the back boards and came out front to Giroux, who snapped it past a surprised Luongo at the 7:14 mark of the first.

The power-play goal was followed by another for the Flyers five minutes later when Giroux sent a pass to the high slot, where Pronger's one-timer made it through a screen.

Vancouver got one back on the man advantage when Samuelsson slammed home a rebound from the right side off a Henrik Sedin slap shot at the left point with 3:25 to play in the first.

However, Philly got the goal back just over a minute later when a weak clear from Luongo was stopped by Giroux, who threw a shot on net that was stopped before James van Riemsdyk roofed the rebound.

The Canucks made it a one-goal game at the 6:41 mark of the second when a broken play saw Alexandre Burrows slip the puck over from the slot to the left side where Henrik Sedin had an easy chip shot.

Less than two minutes later, the Flyers got the goal back when Sean Couturier got the puck behind the net and skated around to the right side before sending a pass over to the left circle where Jakub Voracek snapped a shot home.

Vancouver made it a 4-3 game at the 15:31 mark of the second as Burrows sent a pass from behind the left side of the net to the low right side where Christopher Higgins slipped home a one-timer.

The Canucks tied the game 3:39 into the third with a power-play marker. Crisp passing around the point saw the puck wind up at the left circle where Alexander Edler sent it over to the low right side and Daniel Sedin wristed it home.

Game Notes

This was the third time the Flyers played their home opener against Vancouver. Philadelphia has won all three, including matches to start the 1972-73 and 2000-01 seasons...The Flyers host the Los Angeles Kings and former team captain Mike Richards on Saturday...Vancouver plays in Detroit on Thursday...The Canucks had won the previous two games in the series...Philly went 2-for-5 on the power play while the Canucks were 2-for-7.