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Steve Mason’s Spectacular Save Propels the Flyers over the Wild

Adrian Fedkiw|

After allowing four third-period goals Friday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Philadelphia Flyers surrendered another one just 21 seconds in on Saturday.

They were pretty flawless after that, however.

Especially Steve Mason.

Brayden Schenn scored a go-ahead goal at 8:43 of the third period, Steve Mason stood tall in net down the stretch and the Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Wells Fargo Center.

Mason, who filled in for Michal Neuvirth at the start of the second period after Neuvirth suffered an injury in the opening frame, stopped 19-of-20 shots, including a beautiful kick save on Eric Staal with less than 10 seconds left.

Talk about déjà vu. Mason’s stop came after Neuvirth robbed Charlie Coyle with sick save during the final seconds last February.

Schenn’s power-play tally gave the Flyers their first lead. Jakub Voracek dumped the puck down behind the net from the right boards to Wayne Simmonds, who quickly backhanded it in front to Schenn and he got Dubnyk moving before firing the puck into the wide open net to make it 3-2.

Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto also lit the lamp for Philadelphia, which came in dead last in goals against average with 3.73 per game. Minnesota, meanwhile, was first at 2.00.

Neuvirth made six saves on seven shots in the first period. Here’s video of the apparent injury that took him out of the game, via @BroadStHockey.

Devan Dubnyk was beaten three times on 36 shots. He had allowed just six goals in his last 21 periods heading into Saturday’s game.

Nino Niederreiter quickly beat Neuvirth on the Wild’s first shot of the game.

Manning tied the game up at 1-1 on the power play at 12:27 in the first when his left-point wrister snuck through traffic and beat Dubnyk stick side.

Koivu deked Del Zotto with a filthy toe-drag from the left circle to the high slot and flicked his backhand into the upper right corner that ricocheted off the crossbar. Mikael Granland pounced on the loose puck in front and put it home to give the Wild a 2-1 margin a little past the midway point of the second.

Raffl received a feed from Del Zotto at center ice and streaked down the left wing. Raffl sent a pass back to Del Zotto in front which bounced off of his skate and slid past the goal line for a 2-2 game late in the second.

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