Antero Niittymaki set the bar high last night stopping 33 of 35 shots in a 4-2 Flyer win. Tonight Marty Biron answered with a 34 save shutout in a 2-0 win over the Kings (Biron’s 25th career shutout.) Obviously you don’t want to have to rely on your goalie that much against a Western Conference team that likely will miss the playoffs, but give Biron all the credit for a stellar performance.
This game was really a pretty typical performance for the Flyers: they were outshot (34-20), took a lot of penalties (5, to be exact) and somehow still pulled out a win. The penalty kill was perfect and everytime they did allow a scoring chance Marty was there. Claude Giroux also deserves a lot of credit for an impressive game on both ends of the ice. He may not have registered a point, but his presence on the ice is becoming more and more noticeable as he starts getting comfortable playing at this level, and I see him having a big impact on this team’s chances of doing some damage in the playoffs.
The Flyers have now won two in a row without their best defensman (Kimmo missed another game with “flu-like symptoms) and seven of their last nine. It goes without saying that if Biron and Niittymaki keep this up the orange and black will be in very good shape heading into the last weeks of the regular season.
Next on the schedule is Montreal this Friday at the Wach.
