Couturier helps lift Flyers over Wild

THE SEQUENCE began with Dany Heatley's blocked slap shot inside the Flyers' zone - and ended 9 seconds later down the other end of the ice inside the Minnesota Wild's cage.

Sean Couturier got just enough on the shot, as Wild defenseman Marek Zidlicky simultaneously lifted his stick, and somehow the puck trickled over the goal line and into the net.

For Couturier, the celebration was a familiar one, with his fifth goal in as many games.

Almost all of them, though, have begun in his defensive end.

"The one tonight didn't have the zip on it that the other three or four have," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette deadpanned after the game. "His goals have been impressive. A few of them have come from coming out of our own end. He's not above the play, he's from underneath the play. He puts himself on the right side of the puck."

Couturier, who added the game-winning goal in the Flyers' 5-1 spanking of the visiting Wild, became the team's ninth double-digit goal scorer last night as he simultaneously threw his hat into the ring for Calder Trophy finalist discussion as rookie of the year.

"It's unbelievable," said linemate Jody Shelley, who had three hits in the first period alone in his first game back in the lineup since Dec. 21. "On the fourth line, it's a really big deal to be able to play with him. It's a treat. He's got such a way of looking at the game. He's got such a good stick that the play is never dead with him."

That's right. Couturier has managed to light the lamp in five straight games while playing on the fourth line.

With the goal, Couturier climbed to ninth in rookie scoring. He's now just three goals from tying Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and teammate Matt Read - who dished him the puck for last night's goal - for the rookie lead in goals.

And Couturier has done it by playing less total minutes per game than any rookie among the top 25 in scoring. In fact, exactly 28.1 percent (106) of Couturier's 377 minutes this season have come on the penalty kill. Only one rookie - Ottawa's Jared Cowen - has played more shorthanded minutes than Couturier. The 19-year-old Couturier was also 8-for-12 (67 percent) on faceoffs last night, to go with his three takeaways, two shots and one hit.