Flyers embarrass Wild

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – In an event as rare as a planetary alignment the Philadelphia Flyers have embarrassed their opponent by defeating the Wild 8-3.

All Flyers except for defensive defenseman Marc Moro and Roman Lyashenko (who left the game early in the 2nd period with a pulled hamstring and is, expected to miss 1 to 2 weeks of action) had a point in this game. It was a true offensive outburst by the Flyers.

Chris Grattan started the scoring at 4:41 of the first and just over a minute later Denis Seidenberg scored to make it 2-0, but before the period ended the Wild closed the lead to 2-1 on a goal by Tomas Plekanec. At 10:25 of the 2nd Darcy Tucker scored his 14th goal of the season and just under a minute later Jamie Lundmark scored to make it a 4-1 Flyers lead. The Wild seemed totally out of this game at this point until Blake Bellefeuille shortly after the Flyers took a 3 goal lead bringing the lead to 4-2 now. In the 3rd Cory Stillman cut the lead down to one just 1:50 into the period. The games turning point was the next three goals scored by the Flyers in under 2 minutes. Goals by Georges Laraque, Kyle Wellwood and the second of the night for Chris Gratton blew the game wide open as the Flyers led 7-3. The Flyers checking line finished the night off with a goal by Scott Parker at 17:25.

The Flyers have some tough decisions to make on whether they will be keeping promising youngster Ian White up who was a +2 in the game with 1 assist once defenseman Jay Harrison returns from his injury next game.

Philadelphia’s next game comes from Long Island, New York as the Flyers face the New York Islanders on Day 66. The Flyers are expected to start Martin Gerber.