Boucher's shutout, 100th career victory paces Flyers over Maple Leafs

by Bob Herpen
The Phanatic Magazine


Brian Boucher stopped all 23 shots he faced as the Philadelphia Flyers took a big step towards a playoff berth with a 2-0 victory over Toronto at Air Canada Centre.

Boucher notched his 100th career victory with his first shutout of the season, while Claude Giroux and Mike Richards provided the offense for the Flyers, who have won two in a row and three of five.

Philadelphia moved alone into seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 86 points, one fewer than Montreal, which lost in a shootout to the Islanders, and one more than idle eighth-place Boston.

The orange and black have two games remaining in the regular season, a home-and-home with the Rangers on Friday and Sunday. New York is still on the outside of the playoff picture after losing to the Sabres, 5-2, in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 21 stops for the Maple Leafs, who have dropped four of five.

The Flyers got on the board with the power play with 9:01 left in the first period, when Danny Briere fed Giroux in front for a redirect.

Boucher withstood a pair of Toronto advantages in the first period, then two more in the second without flinching and stopped 15 total shots through the first 40 minutes.

Two more Maple Leaf power plays failed to make a dent on the scoreboard in the third period and Boucher made another eight stops.

His most timely save came with less than four minutes to play and immediately following Toronto's last man advantage, when he dove to his left and used his goal stick to tap away Phil Kessel's deflected shot from a half-open net.

Giguere went to the bench for an extra skater with a little more than 90 seconds left, then Richards provided insurance into the empty net at 18:44.

Notes: The Flyers won three of four from the Leafs this season...Boucher, who was Philly's first-round pick in the 1995 draft, has recorded 54 of his 100 total wins with the orange and black. His last shutouts came in back-to-back starts, on October 12 and October 25, 2008 with San Jose against Los Angeles (1-0) and Tampa Bay (3-0)...Philadelphia last blanked Toronto at ACC on January 17, 2004, in a 4-0 triumph.