(SportsNetwork.com) – One night after setting a season high for goals in a
game, the Philadelphia Flyers will try to keep their offense on point against
the stingy Winnipeg Jets in Sunday’s clash at MTS Centre.
The Flyers struggled early defensively versus the Toronto Maple Leafs on
Saturday before pulling away for a 7-4 win. They trailed 2-0 and 3-2 in the
first period, but ripped off five straight goals to pull away.
Claude Giroux had a pair of goals and two assists, while Jakub Voracek tied a
career high with four assists.
Voracek leads the NHL with 42 points, three more than Giroux and Dallas’ Tyler
Seguin, and his 30 assists also top the league. Giroux has 29 helpers on the
season.
“It’s great to get a lot of goals in one game,” Giroux said. “That was fun.”
Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier finished with a goal and an assist, while
defenseman Nicklas Grossmann netted his career-high third goal of the season.
Ray Emery allowed four goals on 25 shots in the victory, which snapped a two-
game slide and came in the opener of an eight-game road trip.
With No. 1 goaltender Steve Mason out for at least the weekend with a back
injury suffered in practice on Friday, 33-year-old Rob Zepp is expected to
make his NHL debut in net tonight. Zepp has gone 8-5-4 in 17 games with the
Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League this season after
spending the previous seven campaigns in the German Elite League.
Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo also is questionable with an upper-body injury
sustained versus the Leafs.
Philadelphia’s offense will go up against a Winnipeg team that ranks fourth in
the NHL with just 2.21 goals allowed per game. That comes despite the club
currently missing four defenseman due to injury.
Tobias Enstrom, Zach Bogosian and Mark Stuart are all out with lower-body
injuries, while Jacob Trouba has an upper-body issue.
Winnipeg has won two straight, including a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins on
Friday. Evander Kane and Mathieu Perreault scored the goals and Michael
Hutchinson had 30 saves.
“Real good goaltending,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “Then just an awful lot
of hard, scramble battles.”
Defenseman Jay Harrison had an assist in his Jets debut after being acquired
from the Carolina Hurricanes the previous game.
Winnipeg will close out a four-game homestand tonight and Ondrej Pavelec
figures to draw the start in net tonight. He is 7-4-1 in his career versus the
Flyers with a 3.14 GAA and .910 save percentage in 13 games with 12 starts.
The Jets have lost four of their last six versus the Flyers, but have won the
last two meetings in Winnipeg.
