Richie18

Here comes da' Ray Emery bandwagon, DE • United States • 15 Years Old • Male

Carts, Marty lead Flyers to 4-1 win

Jeff Carter scored two goals to add on to his league leading 29 goals, and Marty Biron made 41 saves as the Flyers defeated the Leafs 4-1 tonight. I thought Marty had one of his best performances of the season. Marty made the big saves when needed, and he helped the Flyers get a big win. Obviously, if Marty can keep on playing this way, the Flyers will win a ton of games. Early on in this game, I thought that Carts was snakebitten, because he had a couple of prime opportunities to score, and Vesa Toskala stopped him, but as we all know, the more you shoot the puck at the net, the better chance you have of scoring. That came to fruition as Jeff finally got on the board in the third period when he scored a nice powerplay goal to make it 2-1 Flyers. Carts added an empty net goal late in the game to give the Flyers a 4-1 lead, and win. Mike Richards got on the board first for the Flyers as he scored a power play goal, 29 seconds into the man advantage, to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. After that though, it was a defensive type of game, as nobody scored in the second period. However, the Leafs got on the board less than a minute into the third period, as Alexei Ponikarovsky scored his 14th goal of the season to tie the game at 1. Matt Stajan and Nik Antropov assisted on the goal. Then it was Carts who scored the power play goal for the Flyers to give them the 2-1 advantage. Later on in the third period, defensive defenseman Andrew Alberts scored his first goal of the season, and first goal in a long time. It's nice to see someone else score, and Alberts deserved it. I think Alberts is a solid #6 defenseman, and we'll have to wait and see what happens in the next few days, because Danny Briere could be back on Tuesday night when the Flyers play the Penguins, and that means that Paul Holmgren will have to shed some salary. We don't know if Big Al will be one that might get traded, but we'll see here. Speaking of players that get traded, Scottie Upshall is one player that has been in the rumor mill. I do not want to see Scottie get traded, he has been playing very good hockey for the Flyers, and he brings a ton of energy and can chip in for a few goals once in a while. Not only that, but Scottie can create some scoring chances with his energy. As you saw tonight, Scottie got that rush started that led to the Alberts goal. Finally, with Vesa Toskala pulled for the extra attacker for the Leafs, Jeff Carter scored into the empty net, and that capped off a great win for the Flyers tonight. Like I said earlier, I thought Marty played great tonight. He was positionally sound, made some big saves, and helped us get another win. Early in the first period, Riley Cote and Andre Deveaux dropped the gloves. Before the fight started, you knew it was coming because Riley and Deveaux were talking, and then off the faceoff, the gloves went flying and the punches were thrown. I gave the edge to Riley on that fight. Also, I really thought that Arron Asham and Brad May were going to drop the gloves in this game. The two were talking to each other constantly in the game, but they did not drop the gloves. May was acquired by the Leafs earlier this week from Anaheim. For the Flyers, Ossi Vaananen did not play, after he suffered an injury in practice this morning. Ossi is a key cog to this defense, but tonight, the Flyers didn't have to worry about needing Ossi in this game. Right now, the Flyers are in a great position. They lead the division right now, one point ahead of the Rangers, who shut out the Sens 2-0 tonight, and the Flyers are peaking at the right time. What's even more amazing is that they have had so many injuries and yet, they are still plugging away, and I like that. It shows how much character this team has, because they know that they have to play with what is out there at the time being. Joffrey Lupul did come back tonight after missing the last three games with an abdominal injury. The injury was supposed to keep Lupul out for about two weeks, but he came back sooner, which helps us out a lot. The next game for the Flyers is Tuesday night, when they take on the reeling Penguins. If the Flyers play the way they have the last few games, they should win this game. I expect the Pens to have a major shakeup soon, they are just struggling big time, they have only won once since December 27th. That was against the lowly Thrashers last Tuesday.

Game Summary
Scoring
First period
PHI- M. Richards(16), PP (S. Gagne) 6:41 Flyers 0-1
Penalties
TOR- A. Deveaux, Fighting(major) 5 min 2:20
PHI- R. Cote, Fighting(major) 5 min 2:20
TOR- D. Moore, Interference 2 min 6:12
PHI- J. Carter, Hooking 2 min 7:08
PHI- A. Asham, Hooking 2 min 16:59
TOR- P. Kubina, Interference 2 min 18:58

Second period
Scoring
NONE
Penalties
PHI- D. Powe, Inteference 2 min 10:32

Third period
Scoring
TOR- A. Ponikarovsky(14), (M. Stajan, N. Antropov) Tie 1-1
PHI- J. Carter(28), PP (K. Timonen, M. Biron) Flyers 1-2
PHI- A. Alberts(1), (S. Upshall, A. Asham) Flyers 1-3
PHI- J. Carter(29), EN (Unassisted) Flyers 1-4
Penalties
TOR- L. Stempniak, Hooking 2 min 5:31
PHI- S. Gagne, Cross Checking 2 min 6:21
TOR- J. Blake, Hooking 2 min 11:56

Goalies
Toronto Maple Leafs
#35 Vesa Toskala(L): 26 saves on 29 shots
Philadelphia Flyers
#43 Marty Biron(W): 41 saves on 42 shots

THREE STARS(Sam Carchidi, Philadelphia Inquirer):
1. #17 Jeff Carter PHI
2. #43 Marty Biron PHI
3. #18 Mike Richards PHI

Next Flyers game: Tuesday night vs. Pittsburgh Penguins 7pm CSN-HD

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