A Big First Period Pushes The Flyers Past New Jersey

"The Philadelphia Flyers got off to a fast start and made a trio of first period goals stick in a big divisional win over the New Jersey Devils this afternoon.
The Flyers played one of their best periods of the season during the opening 20 minutes. They didn't get their first shot until the 3:29 mark, but it was worth the wait as Travis Konecny took a feed from Shayne Gostisbehere at the bottom of the right circle and fired the puck past Keith Kinkaid. Scott Laughton picked up the secondary assist on TK's seventh goal of the year.
Valtteri Flippula snapped his 15-game goal drought five minutes later to double the Flyers lead. Radko Gudas pinched in and got the puck down to Michael Raffl at the side of the net where he quickly chipped it out front to Flippula who swept it past Kinkaid for his 10^th goal.
The Flyers weren't done as Ivan Provorov made it 3-0 at the 12:15 mark. Provorov found himself down at the goal crease and after his first two shots were denied he finally put the rebound up and over the right leg of Kinkaid. Konecny and Claude Giroux were credited with the assists on the play.
Things went from bad to worse for the Devils as Kinkaid injured himself on the play and had to be removed from the game. With Cory Schneider not dressed, Ken Appleby was called upon to make his first NHL appearance.
The Devils scored the only goal of the second period by cashing in on a power play at 8:12. Jesper Bratt fired a wrist shot from the top of the right circle that found its way through a Travis Zajac screen and in behind Michal Neuvirth.
The Bratt goal would be the final on the afternoon as Neuvirth made 28 saves to pick up his second straight victory. With the win the Flyers are now just one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wild card spot and three points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for third place in the division.
The Flyers will be right back at it tomorrow afternoon with a nationally televised game at the Washington Capitals. "