Corey Perry
Perry scores twice as Ducks beat Flyers 4-2
Corey Perry

Perry scores twice as Ducks beat Flyers 4-2

Published Dec. 28, 2015 12:12 a.m. ET

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) The Anaheim Ducks' special teams produced three goals against a rugged Philadelphia Flyers squad that always seems to bring out opponents' raw emotions.

Corey Perry had the tying and go-ahead goals, Shawn Horcoff scored a short-handed goal and Ryan Getzlaf connected on a power play, leading the Ducks to a 4-2 victory.

''That's definitely how we have to play,'' Perry said. ''When we don't, we're flat. So we have to play that upbeat style, and a lot of guys played really well.''

Defenseman Sami Vatanen had two assists and John Gibson made 24 saves in his first career game against the Flyers, extending the Ducks' winning streak against them to five games - their longest streak ever against Philadelphia. They are 8-0-2 in the last 10 meetings.

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''Every time we play those guys, it's an emotional game,'' coach Bruce Boudreau said. ''Even though we only play them twice a year, that's what Philly brings out in us. We've got a bunch of big boys that love to get involved in the hitting. We had a lot of emotion right from the beginning, and I think that was what we needed.''

The Ducks and Flyers, who are among the five most penalized teams in the league in terms of minutes, had a wild scrum at 4:29 of the first period after Perry crashed the net and became entangled with goalie Steve Mason.

''I don't think I hit him at all, really. I think it was more my stick going in and reaching for the puck,'' Perry said. ''But he came up swinging, and stuff happened from there. That's kind of what I do.''

The melee resulted in 10-minute misconducts for Kevin Bieksa and Flyers center Ryan White. Perry and Luke Schenn received roughing penalties, as did Mason - putting Anaheim on the power play for the first time.

Philadelphia's Claude Giroux was sent off for slashing 32 seconds after the scrum, giving the Ducks a two-man advantage for almost 1 1-2 minutes. They scored the game's first goal with one second left on Mason's penalty, as Getzlaf used teammate Ryan Kesler as a screen and beat Mason to the glove side with a one-timer from above the right circle.

The goal ended an 0-for-18 drought by the Ducks on the power play spanning the previous eight games., and marked the first time this season that their captain put a puck past a goaltender. Getzlaf's only other goal was an empty-netter on Nov. 16 at Carolina.

''It felt good. That's the first time I've really shot a puck like that, and it's the first time in a long time that it went in,'' Getzlaf said.

Jakub Voracek and Michael Raffl scored for the Flyers, playing for the first time since Monday's 4-3 home win over St. Louis. Mason stopped 33 shots in his fourth straight start.

Perry avoided a check by Evgeny Medvedev along the right boards in the Flyers' zone and scored his team-high 13th goal of the season from short range just 58 seconds into the third period for a 3-2 lead while Schenn was screening Gibson.

''Perry just comes in on my left-hand side, I'm in the right position, and he just sneaks it through the five-hole,'' Mason said. ''It should have been a pretty standard save. It's unfortunate that a 60-minute game came down to one shot, and obviously that was a turning point.''

Horcoff gave the Ducks some insurance with 12:06 to play, scoring his seventh career short-handed goal on a breakaway while Vatanen was serving a holding penalty.

''The PK's been great for us all year long, so it was nice to get rewarded with a goal there,'' Horcoff said. ''We take pride in it and work on it, and tonight it came up huge for us.''

The Flyers, 2 for 18 on the power play over their previous eight games, grabbed a 2-1 lead at 2:26 of the second period against a penalty-killing unit that came in leading the league with an 87.7 percentage. Raffl's fifth goal of the season came with 6 seconds left on Vatanen's holding infraction.

Perry pulled the Ducks even at 4:14 of the period during a goalmouth scramble, a few seconds after Mason stopped his wraparound attempt. The goal came while Medvedev was off for hooking.

NOTES: The Ducks hadn't scored more than two goals in any of their previous eight games. The longest such streak in franchise history was 12 games, from March 15 through April 5, 2002. ... Anaheim came in with the fewest goals in the NHL (61) and Philadelphia the second-fewest (73). ... Getzlaf recorded his 700th regular-season point with an assist on Perry's goal. ... This is Anaheim's only home game in a span of 22 days.

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