If you were still searching for the best story in Philadelphia sports, it’s clearly the red-hot Flyers.
A night after knocking off the team ahead of them in the standings (Detroit) at home, the Orange and Black hopped on a plane and took down the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2.
The Flyers are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, and for the first time since October…
On Wednesday, the game-winner came on a fluky deflection off a Radko Gudas shot midway through the third period. The Flyers made that one count, though. Their neutral zone play in the final 20 minutes frustrated the Blackhawks so much that the United Center crowd started booing at one point.
Michal Neuvirth came up big both early against a 5-on-3 and late in the third period, stopping 26 out of 28 Chicago shots for the game. The Flyers outshot Chicago, 29-26.
The Penguins are up next on Saturday afternoon in Philly. That game could be a little bit of fun, I’d imagine.
The goals
1-0 Blackhawks, Marian Hossa SH (8:18 1P). On the power play, Shayne Gostisbehere broke his stick and Hossa made no mistake with the breakaway opportunity. Neuvirth stopped Hossa on a key breakaway in the third period:
1-1, Ryan White PP (18:48 1P). The second PP unit got the Flyers on the board. A lot of traffic in front of Scott Darling and a good shot by MacDonald created this one:
2-1 Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews (4:58 2P). The Blackhawks were buzzing on this shift, and the captain got the goal on the wraparound:
2-2, Brayden Schenn (13:02 2P). This is some kind of vision from Claude Giroux, against one of the best defensemen in the world no less:
3-2 Flyers, Radko Gudas (9:53 3P). As previously mentioned, some puck luck gave the Flyers a win. I’m sure they’ll take it:
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann