Flyers Give St. Louis Blues

The Philadelphia Flyers had their way with St. Louis. Roman Cechmanek stopped 30 shots for his third shutout of the season and Chris Therien scored a shorthanded goal as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues 5-0 on Saturday night.

"It was men against boys," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was embarrassing. There's not much more you can say." The Flyers lead the Eastern Conference with 74 points.

It was the second shutout in four starts for Cechmanek, who also blanked Toronto Jan. 19. He has a 4-0 career record against the Blues, who have 69 points – sixth-best in the NHL.

"I thought Cechmanek was absolutely outstanding for us early on," Flyers coach Bill Barber said. "He made a couple of big saves for us to settle our team down and our guys responded from there."

The Flyers scored on two of their first four shots in the first period, and then victimized goalie Fred Brathwaite again for two goals on their first four opportunities of the third.

Brathwaite made his second start ahead of Brent Johnson, who had been in the net 14 of the previous 15 games.

"I wanted to come up big," Brathwaite said. "It just didn't happen. Them scoring the shorthanded goal, it was just kind of downhill from there."

Keith Primeau had a goal and reached 300 career assists with his second of the night.

Kim Johnsson, Justin Williams and John LeClair also scored as the Flyers, who swept the season series for the second straight time. The Flyers also beat the Blues 6-3 at Philadelphia Dec. 18.

Therien's third goal of the season gave the Flyers the lead at 8:06 of the first. Therien scored on a 2-on-1 break with Kent Manderville.

"Any time you can get a shorthanded goal to take the lead is good," Therien said. "It's a good start and then we followed up with another one. We had an early jump on them and that seemed to be the difference, really."

The Blues' inability to clear the puck led to the Flyers' second goal. Brathwaite stopped LeClair in front, but LeClair regained possession behind the net and fed it to the point for Johnsson's 10th goal at 12:33.

St. Louis dominated much of the second period, getting the first 11 shots, but couldn't get anything past Cechmanek.

"He was great," Therien said. "A couple of times they had really good positioning for some great chances and he turned them back, and that's what you need."

A giveaway by Blues defenseman Mike Van Ryn led to Williams' 13th goal, a one-timer at 3:32 of the third for a 3-0 lead. Primeau scored a power-play goal from the slot at 5:11 and LeClair got his 21st off a Primeau feed at 15:39.

The Blues' highlight was a slap shot by Al MacInnis, back in the lineup after missing three games with a bruised right foot that cleanly knocked the water bottle off the top of the net early in the second period. Notes: MacInnis said his foot felt fine after playing just over 22 minutes. "I tried to keep my shifts pretty short and not get caught out there," MacInnis said. "All things considered, I was happy the way the foot felt." ... Blues D Bryce Salvador missed the game with two displaced ribs sustained Wednesday. Salvador didn't miss any playing time in that game and hopes to return Tuesday against Atlanta. ... The Blues have been shut out five times. ... Flyers LW Ruslan Fedotenko sprained his left knee in the third period. ... The Flyers are 19-1 when scoring more than three goals.

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Author: 6-ABC-AP