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Winnipeg Jets lose to the Philadelphia Flyers to kick off five-game road trip

Winnipeg Jets lose to the Philadelphia Flyers to kick off five-game road trip - image
Tom Mihalek / AP Photo / File

Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier scored 34 seconds apart in the first period on Philadelphia’s initial two shots, and the Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 on Thursday night.

Mark Streit, Wayne Simmonds and Brandon Manning also scored for the Flyers, who had 12 players register points.

Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien had the goals for the Jets, who opened a season-high five-game, nine-day road trip with just their second loss in the last six.

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Couturier got Philadelphia on the board 9:13 in when he capitalized on a Winnipeg turnover and beat Connor Hellebuyck high to the glove side from close range.

Raffl doubled the lead just over a half-minute later with his third of the season after a stellar play by Matt Read. Read raced up the right wing and dived past Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey, poking the puck to a wide-open Raffl in the crease and Raffl finished with a shot over Hellebuyck’s blocker.

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Steve Mason made 30 saves to improve to 6-0-1 in his career against Winnipeg while helping the Flyers to their second win the last six games.

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Hellebuyck stopped 17 shots.

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Mason was strong early in the third period when he came up with point-blank stops on Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers two minutes apart. The Philadelphia goalie rebounded from Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Ottawa in which he let in the tying goal with 1:59 left in regulation and then refused to address the media afterward.

Winnipeg outscored the Flyers 2-1 in the second period to pull to 3-2 entering the third.

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Byfuglien netted his first goal of the season, beating Mason from the short side just under seven minutes into the second. Philadelphia went back up 3-1 with 7:02 remaining on Streit’s one-timer from the point that ricocheted off Hellebuyck’s glove.

Wheeler brought the Jets back within a goal by finishing a pretty tic-tac-toe passing display with Ehlers and Scheifele.

Simmonds scored 5:46 into the third period to give Philadelphia a 4-2 lead. Andrew MacDonald’s initial shot from the point deflected off Jets’ Marko Dano and to Simmonds right in front, and the Flyers winger spun around and shot past a surprised Hellebyuck.

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Rookie Patrick Laine didn’t register a point after coming in leading all players with 12 goals and all rookies with 17 points.

Manning scored into the empty net with 48.6 seconds to go.

 

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