The Philadelphia Flyers defeated Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-2 game at their home turf with Sergei "Bob" Bobrovsky debuting as the franchise's youngest goalie.
Peter Laviolette, who is in his first full season as the Flyers' coach, hedged his bets on the Russian and proved critics wrong when his pick succeeded in saving twenty nine goal attempts. The season opener was played at the recently opened Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh and it started with a bad omen for the home team.
Bobrovsky, who enjoys the distinction of being named the game's top star, is the first Flyers goalie to earn his NHL debut since Antero Niittymaki win that honor in 2004 against Washington.
The saves started coming in the first period when Bobrovsky stopped 15 goals and kept the period scoreless although it was dominated by the Penguins and his home team was in trouble.
"It's a team game, and I think the whole team played extremely well," he said, with help from a Russian translator.
The Flyers were not expected to launch an offensive but they did exactly that in the second quarter with Danny Briere and Blair Betts scoring big for their team and giving them a 2-1 lead. Claude Giroux scored a goal in the start of the third period and clinched a 3-1 deal for the Flyers. Third period started with a goal by Tyler Kennedy who dodged the Russian goalie to slash the Penguins' deficit to 2-1. Alex Goligoski scored the second goal for the team in the third period.
