Flyers Freeze Jan. 31: Mason clips Red Wings | The Triangle

Flyers Freeze Jan. 31: Mason clips Red Wings

After dropping four straight games, including a 6-1 debacle against the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers got back on the winning track with a 5-0 blowout win over the Detroit Red Wings Jan. 28.

The Flyers went into their matchup against Boston Jan. 25 looking to rebound off a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. To the disappointment of the fans filling the Wells Fargo Center, things did not go the Flyers’ way. The Bruins jumped all over the home team and did not let off the gas pedal as their offense proved too much for the struggling Philadelphia squad.

The weekend was not all bad for Philadelphia fans, however, as the 37th Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival was held on Sunday. The event was a success once again as fans flocked to the Wells Fargo Center to play games and take pictures with their favorite Flyers.

Philadelphia was back in game action on home ice Jan. 28 to face an injury-plagued Detroit team. The Red Wings went into the game without some of their top players, namely Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and captain Henrik Zetterberg. The Flyers took full advantage, as an offensive outburst mixed with great goaltending from Steve Mason propelled them to a 5-0 victory.

Scott Hartnell got the Flyers going with 6:18 left in the first period with a power play goal. After Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser was sent off the ice for cross-checking, Hartnell redirected a point shot from Kimmo Timonen past Red Wings goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.

Hartnell added to his total at 8:08 of the second period when he took a feed from Claude Giroux on a rush and fired it past Gustavsson to make it 2-0.

Fewer than three minutes later, the Flyers’ fourth line got in on the offense. Following a point shot from Erik Gustafsson, Adam Hall backhanded the rebound home for his third goal of the season.

The Red Wings offense put pressure on the Flyers after they took a 3-0 lead, but Mason proved to be the difference. Detroit’s Luke Glendening had a point blank chance on a 2-on-1, but Mason kicked out his left pad to stone the rookie at 12:34 of the second period. The rebound was left in front of the net, but Kyle Quincey fired the puck off the crossbar and out of play.

Giroux netted his 16th goal of the season at 10:22 of the third period to make it 4-0. The play started when Jakub Voracek swiped the puck away from Detroit in center ice and sprung Hartnell into the Red Wings’ zone. After gaining the blue line, Hartnell passed the puck to Giroux at the left circle and he fired a wrist shot that squeaked past the glove of Gustavsson and into the net.

But the Flyers did not stop there. Sean Couturier made sure his name appeared on the score sheet as he put home his ninth goal of the season. Couturier skated hard into the Detroit zone and drew Gustavsson out of position before scoring on a wraparound to make it 5-0.

“That was the Flyers’ best all-around game in a long time,” Lauren Abercrombie, a third-year mechanical engineering major, said. “Hartnell and Giroux had a lot of chemistry and Mason was really on his game.”

Mason was definitely the star in the game as he stopped all 33 shots that came his way. The shutout was his second of the season and the fourth time in his career that he has blanked the Red Wings. Although the win was a huge boost for a struggling squad, it was not all good news for the Flyers. During the second period of Tuesday’s game, the team lost defenseman Kimmo Timonen to a lower body injury.

In the first game of their West Coast trip, the Flyers lost to the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 5-3. Next up, Philadelphia will face the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 1 and then wrap up the road swing Feb. 3 when they take on the San Jose Sharks.