Devils 6, Flyers 4
Defenseman Kurtis Foster scored a pair of 5-on-3 power-play goals as the New Jersey Devils tallied three times in both the first and second periods and held on for a 6-4 road triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored New Jersey's NHL-best seventh shorthanded goal of the season and added two assists. Former Flyer Dainius Zubrus and Alexei Ponikarovsky both scored and set up a goal as the Devils won their third straight since the All-Star break.
Staked to a 6-0 advantage, Johan Hedberg's bid for his third shutout of the season and 20th career was ended when Wayne Simmonds scored 3:58 into the third period. For Simmonds, his third goal in two games gave him 16 for the season - matching his career high.
After Jaromir Jagr scored midway through the session, All-Star Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek brought some life into the Wells Fargo Center. The pair tallied 51 seconds apart to trim the deficit to two at 6-4 with 6:29 remaining, but the Flyers couldn't score again.
With the Devils nursing a 1-0 lead, Kovalchuk and Zubrus capped the first period by scoring within 56 seconds of each other. Zubrus appeared to pull down Giroux before feeding Kovalchuk, who wristed a shot from the top of the left circle past Sergei Bobrovsky for his team-leading 21st goal of the season.
Zubrus then burned his former team by scoring with four-tenths of a second remaining in the first period. A video review showed the puck crossed the line just prior to time running out.
Captain Zach Parise and Ponikarovsky capped New Jersey's four-goal explosion over a 2:34 span in the second period before Foster ended Bobrovsky's afternoon with his second tally of the game.