The Orange and Black is Back!

The Flyers opened up their preseason schedule with a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. In a penalty filled game, or penalty filled first period, the Flyers started the scoring early when Mike Richards scored the first of four even-strength goals. Steve Downie also added a first period goal to head into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.

Steve Downie later scored in the third period for his 2nd goal of the night and Scottie Upshall capped the night off with an empty netter. The Devils lone goal came off a turnover by highly-regard prospect, Claude Giroux. Martin Biron played the first two periods and played well, stopping all 20 shots that he faced. Maxime Quellet played the third and stopped 8 of 9 shots he faced.

Notables who were not in action: Randy Jones, Glen Metropolit, Joffrey Lupul, Mike Knuble, Lasse Kukkonen, Kimmo Timonen, and Danie Briere.

Check out the Box Score.

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Flyers Clinch!

How fittingly...A Flyers win over a Devils team they haven't beat in their last six opportunities and a Florida win in Carolina, a place they have never won, would clinch a playoff spot for the Flyers. Well, it happened. The Flyers played their best game all season as they chased Martin Brodeur out in the third period and shut out the New Jersey Devils 3-0 to do their part. Florida beat Carolina 4-3 behind amazing goaltending performance from Tomas Vokun and Craig Anderson.

Back to the Flyers, it was an amazing defensive effort as everyone did their part. The Flyers handled the puck well and created more turnovers than they gave up. If there was any defensive lapse, Biron was there to bail them out. It was definitely a complete effort from start to finish and like I said, it was the best game I saw all year.

Flyers Goals:
1st Period - 5:44 R.J Umberger (Prospal, Hartnell)
3rd Period - 11:16 Scottie Upsall (Carter, Jones)
3rd Period - 11:53 Joffrey Lupul (Richards)

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The Streak Continues -- barely.

After falling behind 3-1, the Flyers battled back to tie the Devils at 3-3. A late goal by Brian Gionta put the Devils ahead 4-3 and it looked like another late loss suffered by the Flyers. However, Mike Knuble found the net with 55 seconds left to tie the game at four.

The Flyers had plenty of scoring chances in overtime, but Martin Brodeur stoned every opportunity to force a shoot-out. The Flyers failed to see similar results to what they saw against the Rangers last week. They lost in the shoot-out despite Jeff Carter and Danny Briere scoring goals. Marty Biron made zero saves for the Flyers, largely to him staying back to far in the net. Flyers are now 2-6 in the shoot-out this year.

The good news is that the Flyers worked their way back to gain at least a point against a Devils team that has now beaten them twelve straight times in New Jersey.

Game Notes:
- Biron stopped 29 of 33 shots.
- Flyers were 0-4 on the power-play
- Flyers Goals: Prospal (Briere, Smith), Dowd (Jones, Timonen), Jones (Knuble, Upshall), Knuble (Richards, Jeff Carter)

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