Sunday, March 08, 2015

Flyers continue to confound, lose to Devils

Newark, NJ -- Adam Henrique scored twice to help the resurgent New Jersey Devils walk away with a 5-2 victory over the mystifying Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday at Prudential Center.

Stephen Gionta posted a goal and an assist while Jacob Josefson and Eric Gelinas also scored for the Devils, who have won three of their last four and moved three points behind their division rivals in the chase for a wild-card berth. Steve Bernier had three assists and Keith Kinkaid allowed two goals on 27 shots.

"We have some great guys in this room who lead by example and we all feed off that energy," said Henrique. "We're on a bit of a roll here and wanna keep it going."

Ryan White and Michael Raffl each had a goal for the Flyers, who have lost five of their last seven and didn't perform up to snuff with defenseman Michael Del Zotto sidelined for the first of his 7-to-10 day stint on the sidelines.

Steve Mason allowed all five goals on just 21 shots in defeat, as his road woes continue to find no antidote.

Philadelphia's failure to capitalize on its stretch of success in February has caught up to them. Having known of the Bruins' 5-3 triumph over the Red Wings earlier in the day, the Orange and Black failed to at least get a point in defeat and find themselves seven points out of a playoff spot with only 15 games to go. 

"We've been in deep trouble all year; since I've been here we've been 13 points back or something like that," said White. "We have to stick together as a group and keep chipping away. We only control the games we play. We just have to make sure we're doing that to give ourselves a chance to win."

Henrique got the scoring started at 4:49 of the first when he backhanded home a loose puck in the slot after the Flyers were unable to clear it for a 1-0 lead.

The Flyers tied the game three minutes later off a right circle faceoff win that saw Luke Schenn fire a shot on net with White tipping it in.

New Jersey, though, took a 2-1 lead while shorthanded at 3:32 of the second. Josefson skated down the right wing and left a drop pass for Gionta, who blasted a shot on net that Mason stopped. Josefson, though, was there to put in the rebound for his fourth of the season.

Skating on the power play, the Devils took a 3-1 lead into the second intermission as Gelinas' shot from the high slot found the back of the net with 1:51 left.

The Devils made it a 4-1 game on a 2-on-0 break between Henrique and Bernier that Henrique finished off for his 14th of the season at 5:31.

Philly scored a shorthanded goal of its own with 8:16 to play as White sent a saucer pass from the right circle to the front of the net where Raffl redirected it in, but the Devils got it back two minutes later when Gionta buried his chance on a breakaway.

Notes: Mason still has just one road victory this season, a 37-save performance at Los Angeles on Dec. 6 ... Since winning five decisions in a row from Jan. 6-31, Mason has gone just 1-3-3 since then ... After wearing their third jerseys in back-to-back games, the Flyers fell to 3-4-2 this year donning their special orange duds ... In a pregame ceremony, the Devils honored their 1995 team which won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history with several players from that squad in attendance ... New Jersey hits the road for the next three games starting Tuesday in Minnesota ... Philadelphia hosts Dallas on Tuesday ... The Devils were 1-for-4 on the power play while the Flyers went 0-for-3 ... Andy Greene posted two assists for New Jersey.

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