Flyers Pick Up 4 Points

Through all the shoddy play, turnovers, inconsistent efforts, benchings and whatever else, the Flyers won Saturday in Montreal and Sunday in Atlanta. The back-to-back completed a successful week for the Flyers, who picked up 7 of 8 possible points. It’s really amazing how a stretch of games went from so bad, to so good. Simon Gagne led the way by setting up Jeff Carter’s game winning goal on Saturday, and added three more points in a 4-3 win vs. Atlanta. Scottie Upshall was the best player on the ice on Saturday though, scoring his second goal of the season and providing a lot of energy.  Even though the Flyers only gave up 19 shots, Martin Biron still had to make a lot of good saves, bailed out the Luca Sbisa and Matt Carle a few times. Both teams survived the penalty fest in the first period, in what was overall a questionably officiated game.

On Sunday, the Flyers got to see an Atlanta Thrasher team that they own. Antero Niittymaki got the start, and moved to 11-0 all-time vs. the Thrashers. Gagne scored in the first minute of the game, and Mike Knuble scored in the last minute of the 1st. The Thrashers, winners of five in a row at the time, managed to tie the game late in the third. The Flyers were under siege in the third period, giving up 21 shots, almost as many shots as the Thrashers had in the 7-0 whitewashing by the Flyers last month. Despite blowing a two-goal lead and being dominated in the third, Joffrey Lupul scored his biggest goal of the season, breaking a 3-3 tie, and scoring the game-winning goal. After being demoted to the 4th line by John Stevens, Joffrey Lupul has come back to play much better and hopefully this goal will lift Lupul into being a go-to guy for the Flyers. The Flyers put in a consistent defensive effort, despite not having Ossi Vaananen for the game, he and Danny Briere are expected to be back Friday, when the Flyers are in Buffalo.

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Last post (s) by Joshua Bartle

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