Claude Giroux scored his 15th goal of the season to move into a tie for the NHL scoring lead and the Philadelphia Flyers dominated Phoenix early in a 4-2 victory over the Coyotes on Saturday night.
Rookie Matt Read had a goal and two assists as the Flyers took a 4-0 lead after one period. Wayne Simmonds and Scott Hartnell also scored in Philadelphia's outburst. Ray Whitney scored for Phoenix, his 350th career goal. Mikkel Boedker added the second Coyotes goal with 41 seconds left.
Ilya Bryzgalov had 36 saves for Philadelphia and improved to 2-0 against his former team. Coyotes goalie Mike Smith was pulled after allowing four goals on 17 shots in the first period. Jason LaBarbera had 13 saves, blanking the Flyers the final two periods.
The Flyers' first and fourth goals came on power plays. They have five power play goals on 14 opportunities the past two games. They rallied to beat Anaheim 4-3 in overtime on Friday night.
Giroux's goal tied him with Toronto's Phil Kessel for the NHL scoring lead at 32 points.
The Flyers scored twice in a 1:38 span barely 6t minutes into the game. Read got his 10th goal of the season unassisted on a power play 4:23 into the first period. Philadelphia made it 2-0 when former Coyotes forward Danny Briere's shot bounced off Smith and the puck was still in the air when Wayne Simmonds punched it into the net 6:01 into the game.
The Flyers, playing in Arizona for the first time since 2009, were just getting started.
With 3:47 left in the first, Giroux stood with his stick back like a batter at home plate, then got the pass from Kimmo Timonen and slammed the puck past Smith to make it 3-0. The first-period onslaught concluded on Hartnell's power-play goal with 1:31 remaining.
With the 4-0 lead, Philadelphia had already exceeded its league-leading season average of 3.5 goals per game, and Smith was pulled early for the first time this season.
The Coyotes cut it to 4-1 on Whitney's wrister, his ninth goal of the season.
Phoenix outshot Philadelphia 25-13 in the final two periods and 38-30 for the game.
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