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Claude Giroux powers Flyers comeback, takes scoring lead

girouxgetty

James

Maxime Talbot raised some eyebrows when he put Claude Giroux in Sidney Crosby’s league, but the Philadelphia Flyers’ young stud certainly came to play on Versus tonight. Giroux generated three assists and another dramatic overtime game-winning goal to power Philly to a 5-4 comeback win against the Buffalo Sabres.

Sure, that was a brutal turnover by Marc-Andre Gragnani, but few players could make a team feel as hopeless as Giroux did in that situation. That four-point game rocketed Giroux to the top of the NHL in scoring with 36 points. (He also managed that in 26 games while second-ranked scorer Phil Kessel needed 28 games to hit 35.)

Giroux and Jaromir Jagr’s goals were the highlight reel moments, but there was plenty of stunning activity in this game. The Buffalo Sabres raced to a 3-0 lead, but Maxime Talbot scored with about 1.5 seconds left to make it 3-1 going into the first intermission. The Flyers took over from there as Ryan Miller was bumped and bloodied while Philly eventually built a 4-3 lead.

Miller wasn’t the only Sabres player who was banged up. Marc-Andre Bourdon caught Nathan Gerbe with a hit from behind that knocked Gerbe out of the game and will likely prompt a call from Brendan Shanahan. It was a rough night overall, but the Sabres at least squeezed a point out of the game as Drew Stafford tied it up 4-4 late in third period.

Still, the Sabres need to find an answer for Giroux and the Flyers. The Versus crew points out that Philly is 7-0-2 in their last games in Buffalo, so obviously that needs to change.

To be fair to the Sabres, few teams are having an easy team handling Philly on the road. The Flyers improved their away record to 10-3-1 tonight. Ilya Bryzgalov still has a way to go before he justifies his contract, but it’s clear that Giroux and Philadelphia are flying high right now.