Read's Hat Trick Leads Flyers Past Panthers 7-1
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matt Read notched his first career hat trick and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Florida Panthers 7-1 on Saturday night for their second straight win after losing their first three games of the season.
Kimmo Timonen, Tye McGinn, Luke Schenn, and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored for the Flyers, and Ilya Bryzgalov had 30 saves.
Peter Mueller scored for the Panthers and Scott Clemmensen stopped 13 shots in relief of Jose Theodore, who was pulled after allowing three goals on nine shots in the first period. The Panthers have lost four straight after winning their season opener. They have been outscored 18-2 in that stretch.
The Flyers won their fourth straight game at Florida.
Read's third goal came less than a minute into the final period on a shot from the slot that beat Clemmensen on the glove side and made it 6-1. Fedotenko scored later in the third to make the score 7-1.
Three goals were scored during 4-on-4 play in the last 90 seconds of the second period — two by the Flyers, who led 3-0 at the time.
Read's second goal of the game came on a shot from the left circle that floated past Clemmensen at 18:34 to make it 4-0. The Panthers answered on Mueller's goal about 30 seconds later. Mueller skated in on Bryzgalov and beat him stick side. Schenn scored with 13 seconds left in the period on a shot from the blue line that trickled between Clemmensen's pads to stretch the lead to 5-1.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead on a 5-on-3 power play goal by Timonen at 3:10 in.
Read's first goal put the Flyers up 2-0 at 7:12 when his slap shot from the right circle caromed off the post and into the net.
Philadelphia went ahead 3-0 on McGinn's goal at 18:50.
NOTES: Flyers C Danny Briere made his season debut Saturday after missing the first four games with a hairline fracture of the left wrist. . RW Mike Knuble played his first game after signing a one-year contract Friday. . Panthers F Tomas Fleischmann suffered a cut on the top of his foot during Thursday's 3-1 loss to Ottawa, but played Saturday. . Florida recalled C Quinton Howden from AHL San Antonio on Friday and he made his NHL debut Saturday.
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