PHILADELPHIA – Back in California, the Ducks might want to keep their bags packed and find a hotel.
After dealing with some opening-night jitters, Anaheim found quite a home — and three wins — on the road.
William Karlsson and Jakob Silfverberg each scored in the shootout to lift the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
The Ducks finished 3-1 on a season-opening four-game road trip. They allowed a total of six goals in the last three games after giving up six in the opener.
“It makes the flight a lot easier when you battle back and get the two points you needed,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said.
They play their next five games at home.
The Flyers only have two points for the season. The Flyers (0-2-2) lost their second straight game in a shootout and are winless through the first four games for only the fourth time in franchise history. They’re off to their worst start since they were 0-3-1 in 2008-09.
Tim Jackman, Devante Smith-Pelly and Matt Beleskey scored for the Ducks. Karlsson had the winner in the shootout.
“You’ve got to think you’re going to be the hero,” Karlsson said. “You can’t go out there and think, ‘What if I miss it.’ You have to stay positive.”
Mark Streit and Wayne Simmonds each scored power-play goals for the Flyers. Jakub Voracek sent the game into OT with the tying goal. Claude Giroux scored the lone shootout for the Flyers.
“We’re going to play three good periods, we’re going to be a dangerous team, we’re going to be able to win games, and I’m pretty excited to see it,” Giroux said.
Voracek gave the Flyers a spark when he tied the game on 3-all on a nifty backhander with 5:20 left in the third.
Not even home ice could save the Flyers in their second straight shootout. They lost to Montreal on Saturday night and are already reeling in coach Craig Berube’s second season.
“I think it was the most competitive game out of the four,” Berube said. “Obviously, there were stretches in the other games that were good. But I think for an overall 60 minutes effort, this was the best one.”
The Flyers have three off days before starting a three-game road trip. They’ll need the time to refocus.
Frederik Andersen was stout with 39 saves in his second start in two days.
“If you look at his numbers ever since the first day of camp, they’ve been tremendous,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He’s given us a chance to win every game, that’s all I can ask of him.”
Beleskey snapped a tie game with 17 seconds left in the second period for the 3-2 lead.
A game after blowing a 3-0 lead in the loss to Montreal, the Flyers were the team with the late rally.
Streit fired a slap shot off the left post and into the net for the power-play goal to cut it 2-1.
The tying goal almost 5 minutes later belonged to Simmonds. Simmonds has become the go-to big-goal scorer for the Flyers, a trait he developed in the second half of last season that has carried over into the first four games of this one.
With four bodies and a goalie twisted in a scrum in the crease, Simmonds found room on the power play to jab in the puck for his fifth goal of the season.
Simmonds scored two goals in each of the last two games. He’s been on a bit of a hot streak at home, dating to the 2014 postseason. He scored three goals against the New York Rangers in Game 6 of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff game.
Simmonds hasn’t cooled down since and has blossomed into one of the few reasons for Flyers fans to cheer during a dismal start to the season.
They booed the orange-and-black off the ice at the end of the first and Anaheim up 2-0.
Notes: The Ducks swept the season series in 2013-14. … Flyers D Nicklas Grossmann was plowed head-first into the boards and was down for a few minutes in the second period. … The longest the Flyers have gone into a season without a win is six games, which came in 1999-2000 when they started 0-5-1 before recovering to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
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