Claude Giroux Scores 300th Goal, But Flyers Top Sens
By Scott Cole
The Flyers finally faced off against their former captain, Claude Giroux on Saturday night. But his former comrades had the last laugh. Kevin Hayes and Zack MacEwen lit the lamp to end the Flyers losing streak at three and end their road trip on a winning note. The 2-1 victory also extended Ottawa’s losing streak to five games.
Not even three minutes into the game, Giroux scored his 300th goal. The Sens were transitioning forward with Brady Tkachuk speeding across the middle. And as we’ve seen so many times before with Giroux wearing orange and black, he slid off to the side as Tkachuk drew all the attention to himself. Before he got to the net, Tkachuk went to the left, passed to a streaking Giroux, who was coming up in front of the goal, and buried it behind Carter Hart. The goal was the 300th of his career and was, fittingly, made against his told team.
And as we’ve also seen many times this year, the Flyers gave up the first goal, only to rally back. Two minutes after Giroux’s goal, the Flyers were on the power play. The faceoff pass went to Tony DeAngelo who fired a laser shot at the net. Hayes deflected it into the goal after only five seconds on the man advantage to tie it up.
With less than two minutes to go in the second, MacEwen fired off a long shot that ricocheted off Senators’ goalie, Cam Talbot. The puck flew back into the middle of the pack, found it’s way back to MacEwen who tried again. As he rifled another one timer, it went over the shoulder of Talbot to put the Flyers up for good. Talbot was solid in his start. He stopped 26 of 28 shots by the Flyers.
Hart, once again, was the hero of the team. He stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced. His best save of the night came late in the first period. Ottawa forward Shane Pinto broke free and was off to the races. Hart steadied himself in the net and made a great save to stop the speedy skater from finding the back of the net.
Hayes led the Flyers with four shots. He was tied with Lucas Sedlak, who has been a steady performer, as of late, on the fourth line.
The Flyers will return home to face off against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. They will then hit the road to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. On Saturday, the Flyers come back to the Wells Fargo Arena to face the Senators again. It will be an emotional one as Giroux will play his first game in Philly wearing an opposing jersey.