PHILADELPHIA – On Saturday afternoon, the Philadelphia Flyers broke out of five-game skid in a 4-2 win over the equally troubled Tampa Bay Lightning.
Sean Couturier was credited with the game-winner in a four-goal second period that up-ended the Bolts.
Travis Konecny, Michael Raffl and Radko Gudas also scored for the Flyers who improved to 21-15-5 at the halfway point in the season.
“We know how to play with each other,” Konecny said. “We had about 20 games or so playing with each other and we create good offense. I’ve been saying all along we support each other, we complement each other really well and I think it’s just a little change up that happens in hockey and it worked for us tonight.”
Tampa Bay fell to 19-18-4 and got goals from Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn.
“We just don’t have that passion to go to the net and shoot the puck to score,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That’s what they did tonight, they threw pucks at the net and had guys there and banged a bunch home.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 40 saves in the loss; the Bolts took a 1-0 lead into the second period and were playing well before the Flyers dropped the four-spot on them in the middle frame.
Michal Neuvirth, who had not started a game since Nov 12, made 24 saves in the win; he was sidelined since early November with a lower-body injury.
“I didn’t expect an easy game,” Neuvirth said. “[It] was tough to give up one early but I told myself that I still had a lot of hockey left, my teammates are going to need me, stay with it, grind it out. Big win for me and the whole team.”
WATCH: All Lightning vs. Flyers highlights
“Good thing [there is] a game tomorrow. We have to refocus right away and look what we can improve on which is a lot.” — Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman
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