Gostisbehere, Giroux help Flyers top Canucks, win third straight

VANCOUVER --The Philadelphia Flyers made several style and system changes prior to a three-game road trip through Western Canada.
They worked.

Shayne Gostisbehere and Claude Giroux each scored a power-play goal and had an assist, and the Flyers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 at Rogers Arena on Thursday for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
\[WATCH: All Flyers vs. Canucks highlights\]
"It's good for our confidence," Giroux said. "We changed a couple things how we want to play and our identity as a team and everybody has bought into it. It makes it a lot more fun."

Michael Raffl and Wayne Simmonds scored, and Jakub Voracek had three assists for the Flyers (11-11-7), who swept the road trip after losing their previous 10 games (0-5-5).
"Something had to change," Gostisbehere said. "It's good to see if our team makes a couple of adjustments we can adapt to it. We're not as aggressive. It's a more passive system where teams play into our hands rather than if we make a mistake we're done. Just not forcing it, not pressing too hard and it's working for us right now."
Brian Elliott made 36 saves, including nine in the first seven minutes, for his 200th NHL win.
"We knew we needed to change some things and get a different frame of mind," Elliott said. "Coming out here let us get together a little bit and look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'What can I do to turn this around?'"
Brock Boeser scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves for the Canucks (14-11-4), whose three-game winning streak ended. Vancouver played its first game without injured No. 1 center Bo Horvat, who could miss up to six weeks with a fractured foot.

"We're not going to replace Bo Horvat," coach Travis Green said. "He's a pretty good player and when you lose top guys in your lineup someone else has to step up. And a lot of times it's by committee. You can't expect one person to become Bo Horvat. When you lose good players, other guys have to step up, but a lot of times it's playing a real good team game."
Vancouver had the first nine shots of the game with the Flyers playing the second game of a back-to-back set, having defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Wednesday. However, Philadelphia took seven shots on its first power play midway through the first period, and scored on the first shot of its next man-advantage opportunity when Gostisbehere's point shot deflected in off a stick to make it 1-0 at 14:08.

"(Elliott) was outstanding," said Voracek, who has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in his past 11 games, and seven assists on the three-game trip. "They had a lot of chances the first 10 minutes but we knew if we could survive that we would have a chance to win."
Raffl scored for the third straight game 45 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0, tapping in a backhand pass from Voracek.
Giroux made it 3-0 on the power play at 9:52 of the second period, one-timing a Gostisbehere pass past the blocker of Markstrom from just above the left face-off dot.
"When it's clicking like that, you can tell we were on," Gostisbehere said of the power play.
Boeser scored his 14th of the season on a rebound with 20 seconds left in the second period to make it 3-1.
Simmonds scored into an empty net with 1:02 remaining.

Goal of the game

Raffl's goal 45 seconds into the second period.

Save of the game

Elliott's save on Markus Granlund 3:32 into the first period.

Highlight of the game

Markstrom's save on Raffl 7:16 into the first period.

They said it

"It's pretty special for me. You get your first win and you just try to stay in the League and play your game and try to win a Stanley Cup but reaching milestones like that means a lot and hopefully in can go for another hundred." -- Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Elliott on reaching 200 NHL wins
"Losing Bo is obviously a tough break, but it opens up minutes for players. Look at the game today, I don't think we looked tired. We played a great game, we outshot them, but they won it." -- Vancouver Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom on missing No. 1 center Bo Horvat

Need to know

Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, who traveled with the team, has one game remaining in his 10-game suspension. … After the game, Vancouver announced they acquired forward Nic Dowd from the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Jordan Subban.

What's next

Flyers: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, NBCSP, TSN4, NHL.TV)
Canucks: At the Calgary Flames on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, NHL.TV)