Written by Sam Carchidi at Philly.com
Colorado had, in effect, a two-man advantage because it had pulled its goalie and one of the Flyers, Wayne Simmonds, was playing without a stick and valiantly trying to block shots with his body.
In a bizarre sequence, defenseman Andrew MacDonald broke his stick, and center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare handed him his stick. And then Simmonds passed along hisstick to Bellemare.
After the stick exchange, “it was kind of a rodeo after that,” Simmonds said after the Flyers registered their 10th straight win, a 4-3 escape over the Avalanche.
The Flyers were literally huffing and puffing. They were unable to clear the puck – Bellemare failed on one attempt, primarily because he had a borrowed stick that was curved the wrong way (for him) – and drained from the high altitude that victimizes lots of opposing teams that play at the Pepsi Center.
But goalie Steve Mason made some key saves, and when the final horn sounded, the Flyers had their longest winning streak since 1985.
“Just an all-out battle,” said Mason, who survived a 14-shot barrage in the final period. “. . . It was a heck of a way to close out the game.”
“The guys did a great job of blocking shots and tying up sticks,” defenseman Michael Del Zotto said. “Mase stood on his head again and it was a big character win for us.”
Simmonds said that if the Flyers could redo the last five minutes, they would play differently.
“We kind of sat back,” he said. “. . . That’s not what we want to do.”
During the streak, the Flyers have had more grit than grace, and they have won games in every way imaginable, whether it was brilliant goaltending by Mason or Anthony Stolarz, offensive eruptions by their big four – Simmonds, Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, and Brayden Schenn – or clutch contributions by their less-heralded players, such as Bellemare, Michael Raffl, or Roman Lyubimov.
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