Flyers end season's longest road trip with a 4-1 defeat in New Jersey

[Drew]

BE-DEVILED

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Veteran Dainius Zubrus and rookie Rodney Pelley scored their first goals of the season in a three-goal flurry to help the New Jersey Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Thursday night.

Zubrus and Brian Gionta scored within 18 seconds of each other in the first period after spotting Philadelphia a 1-0 lead, and Zubrus scored again late in the period to give New Jersey a 3-1 lead.

Pelley's first NHL goal early in the second period sent Flyers goaltender Martin Biron to the bench. The last time the teams met on Oct. 18, Biron shut out the Devils 4-0.

The struggling Devils entered the game having won just two of their last eight games, but found their offensive rhythm and equaled their combined goals for the last three games with Pelley's score.

Martin Brodeur was barely tested by the Flyers, who were outshot by the Devils 30-8 through the first two periods and 39-14 overall.

Mike Knuble scored for the Flyers, who played without left winger Simon Gagne, scratched after complaining of dizziness and headaches stemming from a hit by Pittsburgh's Gary Roberts Wednesday night.

[dutch74]

at least the road trip is over... hopefully they can get some momentum going back at home.

either way, going 3-5 on such a long road trip isn't too bad

[Wes]

Hopefully Gags can get healthy and our boys can find some consistency coming back to the friendly confines of the Wachovia Center.

Biron's been playing well but he's not a one-man show. Niittymaki's lost his last two starts IIRC and hasn't looked good from the highlights I'm seeing.

On the positive side, only 5 more games until Downie's eligible to come back.

[Andy]

The Flyers made their first regular season appearance in the new Prudential Center. Little did they know, they’d come out with an aftermath feeling of being bashed into a brick wall.

The Devils got to the Flyers right from the get go. It was a slump breaking game for two Devils, namely Dainius Zubrus and Rod Pelley. Zubrus scored two goals, his first two of the season, and Rod Pelley scored his first ever NHL goal. It seems as if all of these milestones happen against the Flyers lately.

“He’s obviously a guy who has to contribute for us,” coach Brent Sutter said of Zubrus, who had gone 14 games without a goal. “It hasn’t been because of a lack of work ethic. Sometimes, it’s when you try to do too much that maybe it affects your game to some degree.” - Devils.com

Martin Brodeur made yet ANOTHER start, stopping all 14 of the shots he faced. What a challenge.

This was the Flyers eighth, and final game of their roadtrip, streaking to be one of the NHL’s longest. The Flyers finished with a record of 3-5. Defensive struggles and offensive lacks caused the losing record here.

“Ideally you want to come out of any road trip .500 or better,” said Flyers coach John Stevens after the game. “I thought we won the games we deserved to win and lost the games we deserved to lose. We just have to come back home and get some rest and get back to work.” - Flyers.com

Mike Knuble scored the lone Flyer goal. I thought we had more talent. However, Richards did add another talley to his point total as he assisted Knuble’s goal.

More updates to come on Saturday’s game, I’ll be in attendance.

-Andy Geleff
andy@flyershive.com

[Jlg-28]

The Flyers were decent on their road trip but not great, there were a few games they could have won. Also consider the teams they played and the fact that they had three back to backs mixed in didn't help much.

Now they can come home and hopefully have another successful home stand