Philadelphia, PA – Jonathan Huberdeau had two goals and two assists as the Florida Panthers handled the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2.
Peter Mueller also scored twice for the Panthers, who snapped a five-game losing streak. Tomas Kopecky had the other goal for the victors.
Scott Clemmensen made 32 saves while picking up his first win of the season. He improved to 5-1-1 lifetime against Philadelphia.
Luke Schenn and Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers, who had a two-game winning streak stopped.
Ilya Bryzgalov gave up four goals on 15 shots before being pulled in the second period. Brian Boucher turned aside 10-of-11 shots in relief.
Philadelphia learned before Thursday's game that forward Matt Read will miss six weeks of action with torn rib cage muscles. The club's leading goal-scorer suffered the injury during the first period of Wednesday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Panthers scored three goals in a two-minute span in the first period. The first goal came from Mueller at the 8:15 mark. Huberdeau beautifully set up Mueller in the slot for his fifth goal of the season.
Just 29 seconds later, Kopecky lit the lamp to make it 2-0. Mike Weaver gathered the puck in the neutral zone and slid a pass to Kopecky, who went in on a breakaway.
Huberdeau scored on a penalty shot at the 10:15 mark. Kimmo Timonen was called for holding as Huberdeau went in on a breakaway. Huberdeau used a nice deke before beating Bryzgalov with a backhander.
"It's always nice when you're up 3-0, that's for sure," Mueller said. "Especially with the way we have been going about scoring five and then scoring zero. It starts with consistency. Hopefully this game will be a kicking start for us, and we get right back at it tomorrow. So, there's not much time to enjoy this, but we'll get ready for Pittsburgh tomorrow."
Huberdeau added a power-play goal at the 11:46 mark of the middle stanza, making it 4-0.
The Flyers finally got on the board at the 13:49 mark of the third period. Schenn's shot from the point got past Clemmensen.
Mueller responded with his second goal of the game less than a minute later.
Voracek, fresh off his first career hat trick against the Penguins on Wednesday, lit the lamp with 4:25 remaining to account for the final margin.
"Yeah, we played well it's just we didn't have a good start," Flyers center Claude Giroux said. "They had the little lead right away and after we were just trying to crawl back. We played well after, we had a lot of chances all worked in, full lines were rolling but at the end of the day we didn't get the two points, we need to have a better start."
Game Notes
Florida took two of three from Philadelphia this season ... The Flyers started a five-game homestand on Thursday ... Panthers forwards Kris Versteeg (chest) missed the game.
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