A high ankle sprain generally keeps an NHL player out 4-6 weeks. It kept Philadelphia Flyers forward Matt Read out until his next shift. Read sustained the injury in November, but rather than taking time off to let his ankle heal, he's played through it and is one of seven Flyers to skate in all 65 games this season. It's a reason the two-time 20-goal scorer has struggled to produce.
Read looked like a player going at full strength Thursday against the St. Louis Blues. He made big plays in the third period to set up Michael Del Zotto for the game-tying goal and Wayne Simmonds for the winner 1:50 later in the Flyers' 3-1 victory. Michael Raffl also had a goal, and goaltender Steve Mason made 28 saves for the Flyers (28-25-12), who are four points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Boston lost to the Calgary Flames 4-3 in a shootout. Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues, who lost in regulation for the first time in four games. Brian Elliott made 28 saves. St. Louis (40-19-5) is four points behind the Nashville Predators for first place in the Central Division. The Predators lost 4-3 to the New York Islanders. The Blues were leading 1-0 midway through the third when the Flyers got on the board. Read won a puck battle in the left corner of the St. Louis zone and got the puck out to Del Zotto above the circles. Del Zotto took one stride to his right and sent a slap shot on goal that deflected off Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson and past Elliott at 9:47. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock felt that's when the game’s momentum swung toward the Flyers. Shortly after Del Zotto tied it, Read tipped a loose puck past Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo at center ice, got to the puck first and held it on the left side of the St. Louis zone, patiently waiting for support. He found Streit joining the play and got it to him between the circles. Simmonds redirected the defenseman's low shot past Elliott at 11:37 for his 26th goal, which leads the Flyers, and fifth game-winner. The key plays Read made Thursday are ones he's not sure he could have made two months ago. In the past 12 games, Read has three goals and five assists. Read refuses to blame the injury for his struggles. After scoring 20 goals twice in his first three seasons, the 28-year-old has six goals and 20 assists in 65 games. Read said he's finally starting to feel like his pre-injury self. Getting a few days off for the All-Star break had him feeling revitalized. Prior to Read making his big plays, the Blues looked to be in control. St. Louis took a 1-0 lead at 13:52 of the first period on Schwartz’s 21st goal. Streit skated the puck out of his zone and tried making a cross-ice pass for Claude Giroux, but it was intercepted at center ice by the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko, who carried the puck back into the Flyers end. Tarasenko found Schwartz cutting down the slot, and his shot from the left hash marks beat Mason. Mason came up big early in the period, stopping Patrik Berglund in the slot three times in a 10-second span. Elliott played well until the game opened up in the third. His best save came with 9:45 left in the second when he pushed hard to his right to get his arm on a Ryan White chance from the post. The Blues finish their five-game road trip Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Philadelphia plays Saturday at the Bruins in a game with huge playoff importance. The Flyers said they weren't watching the scoreboard Thursday, but during Streit's postgame interview he was dropping his eyes down to watch the Flames-Bruins shootout on a media member's smart phone.
Blues Quotes
Ken Hitchcock: "We had a 1-0 lead for 50 minutes, and first 10 minutes of the second period we had chances to extend it. We were playing, and they beat us on the boards. They beat us and pulled it off the boards. It was a 2-on-2, and they pulled it right off the boards and put it back to the point and put it in the net and they gained momentum."Brian Elliott: "I felt good the whole game. I think when you give up chances like we did, it just takes its toll. It's inevitable that something is going to happen. It's unfortunate."
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