Flyers 7, Panthers 1
SUNRISE, Fla. - The Philadelphia Flyers, who had only scored a total of five goals all season, got three in the first period and cruised to a 7-1 win over the Florida Panthers Saturday night.
Matt Read, a second-year pro, scored a hat trick, his first goals of the season.
It was the first road win of the season for the Flyers (2-3), although there were many Philadelphia fans present on enemy ice. Those supporters could be heard chanting: "Let's Go Flyers!"
The Panthers (1-4), meanwhile, have lost four games in a row. The last time that happened was last March 29, but even then, the Panthers got one point out of that skid.
This time, the Panthers have no points in four straight games and have done little since scoring four goals against Carolina in their first period of the season.
The Panthers' last pointless, four-game skid happened on April 8, 2011.
With just 3:10 elapsed in the game, the Flyers took advantage of a two-man advantage to get a power play goal on a wrist shot by Kimmo Timonen. Claude Giroux and Danny Briere got the assists.
The penalties that gave the Flyers the power play were assessed first to Dmitry Kulikov for hooking and then to Jack Skille for interference.
Four minutes later, Read got the Flyers' second goal, assisted by Giroux and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Read, who spent the lockout playing in Sweden, scored 24 goals last season as a Flyers rookie.
With just 1:09 left in the period, the Flyers' Tye McGinn got the first goal of his career on a tip-in to make it 3-0. Ruslan Fedotenko and Braydon Coburn got the assists.
After the period, Panthers coach Kevin Dineen benched starting goalie Jose Theodorre and replaced him with Scott Clemmensen, who held up ... for a while.
The second period featured three goals - all in the final 86 seconds. The Flyers stretched their lead to 4-0 on another goal by Read, this one assisted by Coburn and Luke Schenn.
The Panthers finally broke through, getting a break-away goal by Peter Mueller, who was assisted by Ed Jovanovski.
But the Flyers got the momentum back with an unassisted goal by Schenn.
Read got his hat trick just 54 seconds into the third period. And with eight minutes left, Fedotenko added another.
Saturday's game marked the return of right winger Mike Knuble to the Flyers. Knuble, 40, signed a one-year contract on Friday. He spent the past three seasons with the Washington Capitals, but previously played for the Flyers from 2005 to 2009.
Knuble was signed after Flyers All-Star forward Scott Hartnell, who scored 37 goals last season, suffered a broken left foot Tuesday against New Jersey. He is expected to miss four to eight weeks.
The Panthers have their own injury issues. Forward Tomas Fleischmann, who scored Florida's only goal in Thursday's loss to Ottawa, suffered a laceration on top of his foot during that game.
The injury, which required stitches, apparently happened when he got stepped on - but Fleischmann still managed to play on Saturday.
NOTES: Panthers center Quinton Howden made his NHL debut on Saturday. Howden, 21, was the Panthers' first-round pick in 2010, the 25th overall selection. ... Flyers defenseman Andreas Lilja, 37, was recalled from the AHL, although he did not play Saturday. He was promoted to help replace Andrej Meszaros, who is out with a shoulder injury. ... Panthers forwards Stephen Weiss (lower-body injury) and Kris Versteeg (groin) also sat out the game. It was the second straight game Weiss has missed. Versteeg has yet to play this year, and both are members of the Panthers' top line. ... Two members of the Panthers' second line -- Marcel Goc and Sean Bergenheim -- have yet to play this season, either. ... Flyers forward Danny Briere, who had been out with a broken left wrist, returned to the lineup Saturday. ... Entering Saturday, the Flyers had given up seven goals in 20 short-handed situations. ... Next up for the Panthers is a game on Tuesday against division-rival Tampa Bay. ... Tampa is also the Flyers' next opponent, with Philadelphia visiting the Lightning on Sunday.
