Steve Mason makes 33 saves, Flyers shut out Avalanche

PHILADELPHIA -- Wayne Simmonds scored two goals, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
Jordan Weal scored his first NHL goal, Jakub Voracek scored, and Claude Giroux had two assists for Philadelphia (29-26-7), which won for the first time in three games.
Steve Mason made 33 saves for his second shutout of the season. It was his first start since Feb. 9.

WATCH: Avalanche vs. Flyers highlights
Jeremy Smith made 22 saves for Colorado (17-41-3).
"It's a good win," Simmonds said. "Anytime you get two points it's a good win. We desperately needed two. I thought we played well tonight. We didn't play perfect by any means, but we played well enough to get the win."
Simmonds started the Flyers with two first-period goals. At 4:04, his shot went off the stick of Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin to finish a shorthanded 3-on-1 rush, and then he redirected Shayne Gostisbehere's shot for a power-play goal at 8:07.
It's the second time this season Simmonds scored a power-play goal and shorthanded goal in the same game; he also did it Nov. 11 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"Whether I'm scoring goals or not scoring goals, I'm doing the same thing no matter what," Simmonds said. "I got a good bounce on the first one, [Giroux and Gostisbehere] made a great play up at the top there on the second one. It's all about team effort here."

Voracek made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 10:35 of the first when his shot from the right side went off Beauchemin's stick and past Smith.
"First period, we come out and weren't physically ready to go," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We were on our heels and we let them come at us. We weren't prepared for it. Kind of tough luck on a couple of those for Smith, but we brought that on ourselves."
Weal scored at 7:16 of the second period to give the Flyers a 4-0 lead. The goal was upheld by video review after Bednar challenged that Philadelphia was offside.
It's the first time the Flyers scored more than three goals in a game since Jan. 12. In their previous 11 games, they had 17 goals.
"It's fun," said Giroux, who had his first multipoint game since Jan. 14. "Guys have been working hard as a team, but lately we haven't had the results and it's been frustrating. So we have to keep working at it, keep working as a team. It moves a little better now that we have a win. So let's keep her going."
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen was awarded a penalty shot at 5:13 of the second period after being hooked by defenseman Radko Gudas. On his attempt, he skated through the right side of the Flyers zone but lost the puck before he got off a shot.
Colorado was 0-for-4 on the power play.
"If you don't score any power-play goals and you get some chances, it hurts," center Nathan MacKinnon said.

Goal of the game

Simmonds forced Matt Duchene into a turnover at the Flyers blue line, then finished the shorthanded rush for the game's first goal.

Save of the game

Duchene got the puck in the slot on the power play, spun and shot with 1:44 left in the first period, but Mason got a piece of it.

Highlight of the game

In his 19th NHL game, Weal redirected a Gudas shot past Smith for his first goal. "Probably send [the puck] home," he said. "Got a couple places I can put it back there. Somewhere you can see it."

Unsung performance of the game

The Flyers won 25 of 48 faceoffs (52.1 percent) against the Avalanche, who are second in the NHL in faceoff winning percentage (53.4). Sean Couturier was 9-for-14 (64.3 percent).

They said it

"It's hard. It's just so unpredictable. I think tomorrow I will be relieved either way with what happens. I'm just ready for this to be over and I can move on with my life." -- Avalanche forward Matt Duchene on the NHL Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. Wednesday
"It's been a tough month. Lot of practice time. When you're practicing all the time and not getting any game action, practices become tedious. Nice to get back out in some game action, and the boys in front of me provided me with some pretty good support in the first period." -- Flyers goalie Steve Mason

Need to know

Flyers forward Michael Raffl did not play in the third period because of a lower-body injury. General manager Ron Hextall said there would be an update Wednesday. … Simmonds has scored two of Philadelphia's three shorthanded goals this season. ... It was Mason's 13th shutout with the Flyers, moving him past Bob Froese for fifth in Philadelphia history. He passed Doug Favell for third-most games for a goalie in Flyers history (216) behind Hextall (489) and Bernie Parent (486). ... Flyers forward Nick Cousins played his 100th NHL game. … It was Bednar's 45th birthday. … Avalanche forward Mikhail Grigorenko played his 200th NHL game.

What's next

Avalanche: At the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; RDS2, TSN5, ALT, NHL.TV)
Flyers:Host the Florida Panthers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-PH, FS-F, NHL.TV)