PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers broke out of a recent slump in a big way Thursday night with a 5-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
R.J. Umberger was the hero with his first goal in 50 games.
“It was praying to the hockey gods; thank you,” said Umberger, who had not scored since Jan. 27, 2015. “… You don’t really practice how you’re going to celebrate; emotions take over. We all go through slumps, 10, 15 games. But that was a different animal.”
Steve Mason stopped 41 shots in win over Sabres – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Michael Raffl, Nick Cousins, Brayden Schenn, and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers.
“This was huge,” Simmonds said. “Our game against Anaheim, everyone was disappointed. We felt that was probably one of our worst three games this year. We knew we had to come back and we had to be a lot better. We didn’t start off the greatest, but I thought the overall effort was a lot better.”
Steve Mason got the win on the strength of 41 saves.
“It’s great to see,” Mason said of Umberger. “You feel for him. He takes it hard the way this season has gone for himself. It was definitely nice to see him have some success here tonight. Was a beautiful goal. Especially a veteran guy like that, it’s a tough position and he’s a proud guy. He hasn’t let it affect his work ethic in practice. That’s a credit to him. Goes to show if you work hard, you finally get rewarded.”
Jamie McGinn was the lone goal scorer for the Sabres.
“We had disappointment in this game and disappointment in how we played,” Buffalo coach Dan Bylsma said. “But we’ve got to cut it loose here in 12 hours and get our focus to the next game and Montreal.”
The Flyers are four points back of the second wild card spot in the east and have games coming up against the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers.
“Just looking at the remainder of the month, we have to put together a nice stretch to take advantage of what little games in hand we have left,” Mason said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.