Jason Blake and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky each scored two goals and Jonas Hiller made 35 saves, leading the Anaheim Ducks to a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night.
Bobby Ryan also scored and Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Toni Lydman each had two assists for the Ducks, who began a six-game homestand following a seven-game stretch away from Honda Center that included a 4-1 loss up the freeway against the Los Angeles Kings.
Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf, who scored the go-ahead goal in the final 2 minutes of the Ducks' 3-2 win at Philadelphia on Oct. 21, missed his first game of the season because of multiple nasal fractures after getting hit in the forehead by Shane Doan's deflected slap shot Tuesday night at Phoenix.
Getzlaf saw a specialist Friday after being placed on injured reserve. According to a team spokesman, the fractures were stable and non-displaced, which was a positive sign. But the six-year veteran will be sidelined indefinitely. Matt Beleskey replaced Getzlaf at left wing on the Ducks' No. 1 line with Ryan and Corey Perry.
Andreas Nodl and Jeff Carter scored for the Flyers, who lost for the third time in four games and squandered an opportunity to tie Pittsburgh for the Atlantic Division lead.
Philadelphia was trailing 3-0 when coach Peter Laviolette burned his only timeout at 8:01, bringing back memories of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Boston, when Philadelphia stormed back from a 3-0 deficit and completed a historic comeback on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals after trailing the Bruins three games to none.
Just 14 seconds after this timeout, Nodl scored on a 15-foot slap shot from the left circle. Carter narrowed the gap to 3-2 with 16:30 left in regulation after a sloppy turnover by Perry, but Ryan scored his 15th goal at 5:40 of the second on 30-foot wrist shot while defenseman Braydon Coburn was screening goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Visnovsky ended the scoring at 16:50 of the third with his seventh goal of the season and 100th of his NHL career.
Blake opened the scoring at 5:10 of the first period on a breakaway, beating Bobrovsky to the glove side with a backhander after getting the puck in the neutral zone from Lydman and speeding past Oskars Bartulis as the Flyers' defenseman fell down just outside his own blue line.
Visnovsky made it 2-0 at 3:58 of the second, beating Bobrovsky high to the stick side from the slot after Selanne fanned on Koivu's pass from behind the net. Blake scored again exactly 2 minutes later on a rebound of Joffrey Lupul's shot while Nikolay Zherdev was off for high-sticking rookie Brandon McMillan. It was Blake's 22nd multigoal game and first since December 2009 with Toronto.
Philadelphia enforcer Jody Shelley finished serving his second two-game suspension in less than three weeks, following a sucker punch to the face of Vancouver's Andrew Alberts that earned Shelley a match penalty. The ban cost him almost $27,000 in salary, but it didn't cost the Flyers much on offense. Shelley has totaled three goals in 86 career games against the four teams they played during his suspensions, including Pittsburgh and Montreal - and the Flyers won three of the four games.
NOTES: Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who grew up in Philadelphia and never stops reminiscing about the Flyers' two Stanley Cup titles he witnessed in 1974 and 1975, was among the crowd of 17,103 - 71 shy of a sellout. ... As a result of Getzlaf's injury, Perry and Ryan are the only Anaheim players remaining who have suited up for all 41 games. ... Carter, who turns 26 on Saturday, was the player Team Canada asked to fly to Vancouver on a standby basis in December 2010 had Getzlaf's sprained ankle not healed in time for the Olympics. But it did, and Getzlaf skated off with a gold medal. ... The Flyers are 8-6 with two ties on New Year's Eve, and the Ducks are 3-7 with one tie. ... Hiller was awarded an assist on Blake's first goal.
