Michal Neuvirth earns win for Flyers in relief

PHILADELPHIA -- Michal Neuvirth made 14 saves in relief when the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 in a shootout at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
Neuvirth entered the game to start the third period in place of Steve Mason, who allowed four goals on 24 shots through two periods. Neuvirth stopped all three shootout attempts by the Canucks, including a save on Loui Eriksson to clinch the victory.

Claude Giroux, who turned 29 on Thursday, was the second shooter for the Flyers and put a wrist shot past Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller for the only goal of the shootout.
WATCH: All Canucks vs. Flyers highlights
The Flyers were outshot 38-35, were behind three times, and spent a season-high 14:28 in the penalty box, including 8:37 in the first period.
"That was ugly wasn't it?" Philadelphia forward Brayden Schenn said. "Probably not the way we wanted to draw it up, but at the end of the day we got the two points."

Sean Couturier had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia (22-16-6), and Schenn, Travis Konecny and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored.
Markus Granlund scored two goals, Brandon Sutter had a goal and an assist, and Daniel Sedin scored for Vancouver (20-19-5). Miller made 31 saves.
Henrik Sedin had an assist to give him 997 NHL points, three shy of becoming the first Canucks player, and 85th in the NHL, to reach 1,000.

The Canucks lost their third straight on the road (0-1-2).
"We haven't been scoring an awful lot, so when you get four, you'd like a win," Vancouver coach Willie Desjardins said. "But we got a point."
The Canucks had chances early on the power play, including 7:10 with the extra man early in the first period when the Flyers were assessed back-to-back high-sticking double-minors. Daniel Sedin scored a 5-on-3 goal at 9:21 of the first for 1-0 lead but that was all they could manage.
"It was good we scored on the 5-on-3," Desjardins said. "I thought we had some looks. I thought we had good puck movement. But saying that, it would have been nice to get one more on that."

Granlund's first goal gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead at 1:51 of the second, but the Flyers tied the game with goals 18 seconds apart by Bellemare and Couturier to go ahead 3-2.
That lead lasted 22 seconds, until Granlund bulled his way to the net and banged a puck under Mason at 10:01 to make it 3-3.
Sutter tipped a centering pass from Jayson Megna past Mason at 12:46 of the second to give the Canucks a 4-3 lead.

Neuvirth was in goal for Philadelphia to start the third and kept the game tied after Schenn scored 57 seconds into the period.
"I was confident coming into the game and I've been practicing well," Neuvirth said. "Coach [Dave Hakstol] asked me to shut the door and that's what I did."

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Goal of the game

Dale Weise used his stick to bounce the puck ahead to Konecny, who scored from the slot to tie the game 1-1 at 14:30 of the first period.

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Save of the game

Flyers forward Nick Cousins made a strong move around Canucks defensemen Chris Tanev when he drove to the goal and got a low shot on net, but Miller did the splits and stopped the shot with his left toe at 17:25 of first period.

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Highlight of the game

At 3:08 of overtime Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler had a shot off a Sutter rebound but Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere jumped behind Neuvirth and swatted the puck back toward his goalie, who covered it.

Unsung performance of the game

Chris VandeVelde made a leaping play at the Canucks blue line to hold puck in the zone on the play that led to Bellemare's goal at 9:21 of the second period.

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They said it

"Four goals, that should be enough, I think that's the bottom line in this game. It's not a League where you have to score four goals to win, but if you do you should win." -- Canucks captain Henrik Sedin
"We stayed with it and got a good win. Obviously not textbook in anyway shape or form. We had a real good push through the third period and found a way to win. That is most important." -- Flyers coach Dave Hakstol

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Need to know

The Canucks' five road wins are tied for the second-fewest in the NHL. The New York Islanders have four. … Daniel Sedin's goal was his first in 11 games. … Desjardins has 99 wins as an NHL coach. … It was the first NHL game between Canucks forward Bo Horvat and Konecny, who are second cousins.

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What's next

Canucks: Host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Flyers: At the Boston Bruins on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, NESN, CSN-PH, NHL.TV)