PHILADELPHIA _ Fourth-line left winger Tyrell Goulbourne made his presence felt in his initial NHL shift Saturday afternoon, delivering a crunching check that led to the first goal in the Flyers'6-3 win over St. Louis at the Wells Fargo Center.
The play set the tone. The Flyers swarmed the net for a good part of the afternoon and won for the third time in their last four games.
Scott Laughton, Claude Giroux, Jordan Weal, Sean Couturier (two), and Wayne Simmonds scored for the Flyers, who host Buffalo in a Sunday matinee before an NHL-mandated break keeps them from practicing again until Friday.
Giroux, who also contributed a pair of assists, had his 10th multiple-point performance in his last 19 games.
St. Louis got to within 4-2 when Paul Stastny took a one-handed pass from Vladimir Tarasenko and scored just 12 seconds into the third period. But Simmonds helped secure the win with a power-play goal as he directed Shayne Gostisbehere's point drive with 8 minutes, 42 seconds remaining.
Trailing by three goals, St. Louis pulled its goalie with a little more than five minutes left. The Blues got to within 5-3 on Colton Parayko's goal with 4:31 to go. The Flyers missed a half-dozen shots at the empty net before Couturier scored with 14.9 seconds left.
Goulbourne, recalled from the Phantoms, leveled 6-foot-3, 210-pound St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo with his second check of his first shift, and Scott Laughton picked up the loose puck and beat Jake Allen to the short side with 17:45 left in the first period.
"I just saw the puck underneath his feet and tried to knock him over," said the 5-11, 195-pound Goulbourne, whose mom, aunt and girlfriend traveled from Edmonton to watch his NHL debut. "I wasn't really worried about the puck there. I just wanted to get that first hit under me."
Actually, he checked 6-4, 206-pound defenseman Jay Bouwmeester into the boards earlier in the shift.
About 4{ minutes after Laughton's goal, Giroux made it 2-0 on a bizarre tally that bounced off the butt of falling defenseman Parayko. Giroux was attempting to make a saucer pass to Travis Konecny on a two-on-one.
The Flyers took a 2-0 lead into the second period. It marked just the second time in the last 21 games they had a lead after the opening 20 minutes.
Weal scored on a power move after taking a slick pass from the NHL's assist leader, Jake Voracek, to push the Flyers lead to 3-0 with 11:28 remaining in the second. A little more than three minutes later, Couturier redirected a great feed from Giroux as the Flyers scored on a rush against former teammate Brayden Schenn's line.
Couturier has 21 goals in 41 games. His previous career-high: 15 goals.
St. Louis got to within 4-1 as Ivan Barbashev went upstairs on a backhander with 5:04 to go in the second period.
The Flyers, who scored a 2-0 win in St. Louis on Nov. 2, swept the two-game season series from the Blues. It was just their fourth sweep (minimum of two games) over St. Louis since 1995-96.
