PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Flyers avoided an ignominious exit from the post season on Wednesday night with a solid 2-1 win over Washington.
Michal Neuvirth was in net for the Flyers and made 31 saves; it was his first Stanley Cup playoff start in five years.
“He stole one for us at the end,” Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said.
Wayne Simmonds had two assists in win
Neuvirth was in net because Steve Mason has been plagued by soft goals in the series.
“I felt a little rusty early during the game,” Neuvirth said. “The guys did such a good job in front of me. I was just finding my rhythm. I think from the second period I was feeling really good. Just really happy with the effort tonight.”
Shayne Gostisbehere and Andrew MacDonald were the goal scorers for Philadelphia.
A game after giving up five power play goals the Flyers limited Washington to just two and neither cost them.
“That was one of the reasons that we won the game,” Neuvirth said. “That was our goal. And we didn’t take any stupid penalties. Just a great team effort for 60 minutes. That’s the way we’ve got to play.”
T.J. Oshie scored for Washington.
“Didn’t think we made their goaltender work very hard,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought we made it a really easy night for him the first two periods. The third period we came with the effort that we’re going to need to have for 60 minutes in terms of getting to the interior, making plays, using our speed, playing fast. All those things we’re capable of doing.”
Game 5 is set for the Verizon Center on Friday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN; CBC; TVA Sports; CSN-DC, CSN-PH).
“We’ve had pretty good starts each game of this series,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “We haven’t been able to build a lead, in most cases not even get a lead. We were able to do that tonight, build it to a two-goal lead, and most importantly we were able to sustain our play through the 60 minutes. Even through their push in the third period.”
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