Instant Replay: Flyers 1, Panthers 0

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BOX SCORE

It was opening night for the Flyers in South Philly and much like the season opener last Thursday in Tampa, you got a lot of bang for the buck.

The Wells Fargo Center was electric from start to finish in what was one of the best home openers in years, as the Flyers shut out Florida, 1-0.

Florida pasted them Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla., 7-1.

The Flyers came out hitting and it stayed that way. Radko Gudas and Wayne Simmonds made some impressions on the Panthers from a hitting standpoint.

Michal Neuvirth made the unexpected start in goal, as Steve Mason is taking a brief leave from the team for personal reasons.

Neuvirth was nothing short of spectacular with 31 saves. His best save was a Brian Boucher fall-back, glove-hand stretch on Brandon Pirri late in the game at the post.

The Flyers are 27-15-6 all-time in home openers. They had lost their last three such openers played here. The Panthers won the very first game played here in 1996 (3-1) when it was CoreStates Center.

Scoring chance
You had to like Jakub Voracek’s blind backhanded pass to Michael Raffl in the slot during the second period. Robert Luongo made a nice save on it, too.

Notable goals
Brayden Schenn scored his second goal of the season and the Flyers' first on home ice shortly after a big penalty kill. Sam Gagner showed a little skill by taking the puck up ice and putting it on net where Schenn eventually got a rebound goal against Luongo.

Goalie report
Neuvirth was very sharp. He had to be just to shut down all those Panthers power plays. Florida had four in the first period and two in the second.

Power play
The Flyers tried to get a little too precise during a 49-second 4-on-3 in the second period. Just fire the puck and go for the rebound. When it went to 5-on-4, Luongo made a gut save on Mark Streit’s hard bullet from the point. The Flyers were 0 for 3 in the game.

Penalty kill
The last thing the Flyers wanted was a four-minute kill to start the game but that’s what happened, and to everyone’s surprise, they did an outstanding job. The Panthers had just four shots, while the Flyers had four blocked shots. The Flyers killed off all six Panthers power plays, a huge improvement over the last game when they gave up three goals.

Fights
There was lots of feistiness in this one. Simmonds pushed, shoved and tossed around three Panthers on one play and somehow managed to give the Flyers a power play out of it.

Scratches
Forwards R.J. Umberger (upper body) and Vinny Lecavalier; defenseman Luke Schenn and Mason (personal leave). Only Umberger was injured.

Up next
The defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks visit on Wednesday night. The Flyers will honor longtime defenseman Kimmo Timonen prior to the game.

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