Couturier keeps rolling as Flyers dump Devils
Sean Couturier remained red-hot Saturday night by scoring two goals, including the tiebreaking tally late in the second period, as the Philadelphia Flyers tightened the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference playoff races by beating the reeling New Jersey Devils 5-3 in Newark, N.J.
The two-goal game was the third in a row for Couturier, who has nine goals in his past seven games and 25 goals overall this season. His previous single-season high for goals was 15 in 2014-15.
Wayne Simmonds scored in the second period, and Travis Konecny and Michael Raffl added insurance goals in the third period for the Flyers, who have won four straight to move within one point of the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins for the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots. Philadelphia is in a three-way tie at 48 points with the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes.
Flyers goalie Brian Elliott recorded 26 saves.
Jesper Bratt (first period), Kyle Palmieri (second period) and Drew Stafford (third period) scored for the Devils, who have lost six straight (0-3-3). Goalie Cory Schneider made 20 saves for New Jersey, which is in third place in the Metropolitan, just three points ahead of the Rangers and Penguins.
The Devils took a pair of early leads on the goals by Bratt and Palmieri. Couturier's first goal tied the game with 5:25 left in the first. Simmonds' goal again tied the score with 8:07 remaining in the second and began a stretch of four unanswered tallies by the Flyers.
Couturier's power-play goal gave the Flyers the lead for good with 1:54 left in the second. His shot sailed past Brian Boyle as the Devils defenseman tried to get a stick on the puck, then went over Schneider's right shoulder.
Konecny and Raffl scored about eight minutes apart in the third before Stafford scored with 45 seconds left.
Couturier also had an assist. Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov and Jakub Voracek each collected two assists for Philadelphia. Taylor Hall had two assists for New Jersey.
--Field Level Media
