Flyers Notes: Flyers going with hot goalie Bryzgalov

By Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: March 11, 2012

TORONTO - Even though the Flyers are playing on consecutive nights this weekend, it looks as if there is no rest for goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Coach Peter Laviolette is staying with the hot hand.

Bryzgalov made his 11th straight start Saturday night in Toronto. He entered the game with a 1.95 goals-against average, a .926 save percentage, and three shutouts in his last 11 games.

"He seems focused and really in control of what he's doing back there," Laviolette said after Saturday's morning skate. "I think our guys have tried to do a good job of cleaning things up in front of him, but there's always chances because there's so much talent in the league - and breakdowns that happen. That's when your goaltender has to come up big, and he's been terrific lately."

Laviolette said it was not a difficult decision to turn down a chance to rest Bryzgalov, who also figures to play in a key matchup Sunday night in New Jersey.

On Thursday, Bryzgalov notched his second shutout in the last three games, blanking Florida, 5-0. After that game, he had stopped 99 of the last 101 shots he had faced.

"Bryz is fresh, he's ready. Our team is fresh and ready," Laviolette said. "We have two points at stake against a [Toronto] team that is desperate to win. We have a guy coming off a great game and we'll put him back in - so, no, it wasn't a tough decision."

PK progress

After a brutal three-game stretch in which they allowed five power-play goals in eight chances, the Flyers' penalty-killing unit has regrouped.

Heading into Saturday, they had not surrendered a power-play goal in their last five games, stopping all 11 chances.

"The biggest thing is we've been staying out of the [penalty] box," defenseman Matt Carle said before the game. "It gives us more flow to the bench and more rest for the guys killing penalties."

Carle conceded that lately the Flyers have had more of a "commitment to blocking shots and getting in lanes and keeping [shooters] to the outside."

Remembering Carnegie

Herb Carnegie, the first black hockey player to be offered a chance to play in the NHL, died Friday in Toronto at 92.

In 1948, the New York Rangers offered him a spot on their top minor-league team, and he turned it down because he felt insulted by the offer and said he was making more in the Quebec League, the New York Times said.

He never played in the NHL, telling the Times recently he was "stopped by the color barrier."

Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds, who played before family and friends Saturday and is one of the NHL's few black players, tweeted: "RIP Herb Carnegie u will be missed by many #blackhockeypioneer."

Breakaways

None of the Flyers' injured players made the trip to Toronto, though Pavel Kubina and Jakub Voracek are listed as day to day. There is an outside chance they will join the team in New Jersey. . . . Nineteen members of the Flyers' fan club made the 10-hour trek to Toronto - on a bus without a bathroom.