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 Right winger Corey Perry scored his team-leading 29th goal of the
season and center Ryan Getzlaf reached a career high with his 26th,
leading the Ducks to a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in a
testy affair Thursday night at Honda Center.
"It was a pretty physical game," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said.
"They were trying to push us around. I thought we did a pretty good
job of standing up for ourselves. We can play that kind of game if
people want."
Getzlaf, who was involved in a rare fight, also pushed across an
assist as Anaheim (40-11-5) swept the two-game series with the
Flyers (26-23-6). The Ducks rallied for a 3-2 decision at
Philadelphia on Oct. 29. The Ducks improved to 22-2-2 at home.
Getzlaf exchanged blows with Flyers right winger Steve Downie early
in the second period. Both were issued five-minute penalties for
fighting, but the chippiness continued and seemed to motivate the
Ducks, who were already grumpy about dropping only their second
regulation loss at home — and two of the last three games — two
nights ago against the Minnesota Wild.
"He said to me earlier that I owed him one from the first game of
the year when he was in Colorado," Getzlaf said, referring to an
earlier tangle between the two when Downie was playing with the
Avalanche. "He asked me to go and I thought it was an OK time to do
it."
Anaheim goaltender Frederik Andersen stopped 27 shots, including an
outstanding glove save of a point-blank attempt by center Vincent
Lecavalier early on. The Ducks' rookie has won five consecutive
games and is unbeaten in six starts at home.
"He is pretty cool and calm," Boudreau said. "There doesn't seem to
be a lot that rattles him, which is good."
Flyers netminder Steve Mason finished with 23 saves, but shook his
head at Anaheim's fortunes.
"There wasn't a single clean shot from the point the entire night,"
said Mason, who was coming off a shutout of the Detroit Red Wings on
Tuesday. "They did a great job of getting sticks on it, bodies in
front. When you have a team like that, it makes it difficult to stop
pucks."
Left winger Patrick Maroon got the NHL-leading Ducks off and
running, misdirecting a shot by defenseman Francois Beauchemin and
into the net for 1-0 lead with 9:22 left in the first period.
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Lecavalier tied the score when his shot from the right circle
slipped past Andersen for a power-play goal with 5:25 remaining in
the first.
But Anaheim scored again off another deflection. This time Getzlaf
was the recipient, as rookie defenseman Hampus Lindholm's attempt
from below the blue line hit the Ducks center's stick and dribbled
through the legs of Mason for a 2-1 lead with 36 seconds remaining
in the period.
Perry scored midway through the second period when he fielded a pass
from Getzlaf and converted for a 3-1 Anaheim advantage.
Philadelphia cut the margin to a goal when right winger Matt Read
punched in a rebound of a miss by defenseman Mark Streit for his
14th goal at 5:48 of the third period.
However, center Daniel Winnik cashed in a short-handed goal after a
feed from center Saku Koivu for a 4-2 lead. It was Winnik's second
goal of the season and only his fourth in 100 career games.
Koivu added an empty-netter with 24 seconds remaining. Left winger
Michael Raffi scored for Philadelphia for the final goal with 10
seconds left.
"I am definitely pleased with the effort," Philadelphia coach Craig
Berube said. "Guys competed hard. It was a hard-fought game. That's
a very good team over there."
NOTES: Anaheim C Nick Bonino left the ice with an upper-body injury
in the first period after a vicious hit from Philadelphia C Zac
Rinaldo. He returned briefly in the second period, but left for good
on the advice of coach Bruce Boudreau. Bonino is listed as
day-to-day. ... Flyers C Claude Giroux had 11 goals and 13 assists
in the past 22 games entering Thursday's contest. ... Anaheim RW
Teemu Selanne tied Scott Mellanby and Luc Robitaille for 25th in
career games played with 1,431. ... Ducks C Saku Koivu played his
1,100th career game. ... Philadelphia's appearance was the first in
Anaheim since it recorded a 4-3 overtime win on Dec. 2, 2011. ...
The Flyers cap their three-game Western swing with games against the
Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and the San Jose Sharks on Monday. ...
The Ducks have three games left in their five-game homestand against
the Dallas Stars (Saturday), Columbus Blue Jackets (Monday) and the
Chicago Blackhawks (Wednesday).
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