Simon Benoit dropped the gloves with Brian Halonen on Thursday, and Joseph Woll stopped all 28 he faced in a 2-0 Philadelphia win.
A shutout and a scrap in the same evening. Both of them went the Flyers' way.
Benoit took 5 penalty minutes across 17:16. Halonen collected the same 5 for Boston.
Woll went the full 60 minutes and turned away every shot that came at him.
That's a goaltender making a point in a new sweater. Nobody hands out shutouts in late September for free.
Matvei Michkov scored in 18:16. Cole Knuble got the other Philadelphia goal.
Both teams put 28 shots on net. Philadelphia simply had the better man standing behind them.
-
Joseph Woll steals the show in Flyers' 2-0 win over Boston
Rick Tocchet and Michkov have reportedly bumped heads since camp opened.
Inside The Rink floated him this week as a forward Detroit should be calling about. Thursday was a decent answer to that.
Porter Martone picked up an assist across 16:13. That same column called him a franchise cornerstone in Philadelphia.
Michael DiPietro faced 28 for Boston and stopped 26 of them. He deserved better than a loss.
Travis Sanheim led every skater in the building at 26:47 on the Philadelphia blue line.
Cam York went 24:23 and Rasmus Ristolainen 24:06 behind him.
Trevor Zegras and Jett Luchanko each took a minor for the home side.
Jacob Gaucher and Helge Grans picked up the other Philadelphia assists on the night.
Philadelphia sits 1-2 through the exhibition schedule. Boston is 2-1.
Washington hosts Boston tonight, then visits Philadelphia on Saturday.
Daniel Briere has a roster to submit by Monday like everybody else.
Marco Sturm's group generated 28 shots and got nothing out of any of them.
So what does a preseason shutout actually buy? Stopping everything in a game that doesn't count works like acing a practice exam. It proves you studied.
Woll did his job and Benoit did his. Tocchet has four days to decide how many of these nights he believes.
Has Joseph Woll earned the starter's job in Philadelphia?
Also read on Markerzone.com:
Alex DeBrincat answers heated scrum with overtime winner for Detroit
