Flyers, Emery Shutout Canes’ In Opener
Ray Emery said he was going to have butterflies when the puck finally dropped to begin his comeback season. Not too many people thought he’d walk out of Raleigh with a shutout in his first regular season start since 2007. Emery and the Philadelphia Flyers shutout the Carolina Hurricanes tonight 2-0.
The 27-year-old goaltender stopped all 28 shots he faced in an outstanding Flyers debut recording his ninth career shutout
“When your playing well, you get in the right spot to make saves. Our guys played great in front of me, it was a good way to start,” Emery said after his 28-save shutout performance.
“”He’s looked more comfortable every day,” coach John Stevens said. “He looks alert, he’s finding pucks, he makes saves on effort and he was tremendous.”
The Flyers dominated this contest from the get-go. Chris Pronger led all Flyers skaters with over 27 minutes of ice time and added two penalties of his own. Staying on penalties, 23 penalty minutes were called tonight on the Flyers. Coach John Stevens has stated many times that they have to work on getting those minutes down.
The Flyers got goals very quickly into the second period with two power play goals within 22 seconds. Jeff Carter capitalized on a rebound followed by a Mike Richards redirection in traffic. Both goals came from a double-minor penalty from the Hurricanes.
“It was a similar play that we always do,” Richards said. “Usually, it is me and Gaggy but this time, Gaggy made a good play. I just had to my stick down and puck went into the net,” said Flyers captain Mike Richards.
James van Riemsdyk recorded his first NHL point picking up an assist on the Richards’ power play goal. Daniel Briere and Simon Gagne also added a powerplay assist.
The Flyers penalty kill was perfect tonight killing all eight Carolina power play’s. The Flyers went 2-for-6 on the power play.
“Special teams bailed us out tonight,” Richards said. “Penalty-killing did a good job, we scored on a couple of power plays, and that was the difference.”
Back over to Emery. Per the Philadelphia Flyers: Emery’s last three appearances against the Hurricanes have ended in shutouts. His last complete-game regular-season shutout was a 2-0 victory over Carolina in February 2007, when he was with Ottawa. The following season, he and Martin Gerber teamed to blank the Hurricanes, but Emery logged only about 5 1/2 minutes of ice time in that game.
Tonight’s game was one to remember if your Ray Emery. First star, no doubt.
The Flyers will fly back to North Jersey tonight to prepare for tomorrow nights matchup against division rival New Jersey Devils. Faceoff is at 7 p.m.
Faceoff with Chris 