Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Flyers confound logic, keep winning in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA -- Brayden Schenn registered a pair of goals and  Steve  Mason added 24  saves as  the Philadelphia Flyers continued to play against type and further their domination at CONSOL Energy Center with a 4-1 decision over Pittsburgh.

Vincent  Lecavalier and Carlo Colaiacovo also lit the lamp for the Flyers, who have  won five  straight in  the Steel  City and  improved to  11-1-1 all-time during the regular season at the arena which replaced the Igloo.

The win snapped a nine-game road losing streak for the Orange and Black.

It also gave them their first victory away from home since February 15 in Buffalo. No team has lost 10 in a row on the road since Dec. 27, 1991 through Feb. 4, 1992 (0-8-2) when Bill Dineen was in the early stages of taking over for Paul Holmgren as head coach.

Sidney  Crosby supplied the lone offense for the Penguins, who have lost seven of  their  last 10.  Marc-Andre Fleury allowed  all four goals  on 31 shots in another home setback to their cross-state rivals.

Schenn  tapped  in a  Jakub Voracek slap  pass in  front on the  tail end of a carryover  power play  for a key insurance  goal and a 3-1 Philly lead just 49 seconds into the third period.

Colaiacovo  then followed  up a Michael Raffl miss and converted from the left side at 5:34 to make it a three-goal spread.

Mason kept the injury and penalty-prone Penguins off the board for the remainder, picking up just his second road win of the year.

Their current seven-game win streak over the perennial hot pick to win the division and advance deep into the Eastern Conference playoffs matched a similar roll from Feb. 18-Dec. 22, 1985, and trails only a nine-game run from 2/2/80 to10/29/81 and the all-time record of 11 consecutive victories over the pre-Lemieux club from 12/12/82 through 3/28/84.

Things  looked good early  on for the struggling hosts, as Crosby chipped in a Patric Hornqvist rebound at the right post just 3:29 into the contest.

However,  the  game reverted back  to form for  the visitors. Lecavalier won a right-circle  draw and then scored his second goal of calendar year 2015 off a Pierre-Edouard Bellemare rebound at 17:14.

Schenn  put the  Flyers on top to stay  when he followed up a broken rush and, thanks to some lax defensive coverage, scored on a wrister from the slot for a 2-1 game at 12:43.

Notes: Philadelphia's record stands at 13-2-1 in 16 total appearances at Pittsburgh's new  hockey venue ... Crosby's marker was his 300th career goal, coming in his 622nd game ... The Pens captain joined Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Rick Kehoe and  Jean Pronovost  to score as many with the franchise ... Colaiacovo netted his  first goal since March 9, 2014 for the Blues ... Schenn posted his fourth multi-score effort of the season and first since March 14 against Detroit.

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