Steve Mason makes 45 saves in Flyers shootout win

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers were unanimous when it came to determining who should get credit for their victory Tuesday.
Goaltender Steve Mason made 45 saves through overtime and stopped eight of nine attempts in the shootout to lift the Flyers (11-10-3) to a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins (12-10-1) at Wells Fargo Center.

Shayne Gostisbehere scored the deciding goal in the ninth round of the shootout, and then Mason clinched the win by making a glove save on David Backes' backhand attempt.
The Flyers led 2-0 before Bruins forwards David Krejci and Brad Marchand scored 1:18 apart in the third period.
WATCH: All Bruins vs. Flyers highlights
"It's nice to come out on top after a tough game and blowing a two-goal lead in the third period," Mason said "We can't be giving up leads like that in the third. It's tough to gain momentum back after that. But we found a way tonight."
Mason was the main reason they were able to find a way. He made saves on all 19 shots he faced in the first period, and the Bruins' 47 shots were the most allowed by the Flyers since the Columbus Blue Jackets had 53 before defeating Philadelphia 3-2 in a shootout on March 22.
"He made some pretty amazing saves," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. "Without Mason, we're not in this game. He did a good job keeping us in this game."
Giroux and Michael Del Zotto scored for the Flyers, who won consecutive games for the second time this season. They defeated the Calgary Flames 5-3 on Sunday.

The Flyers had been 2-5-2 after wins this season, with the two victories coming during a three-game win streak Oct. 30-Nov. 3.
"Is two games a winning streak?" Mason said. "We'll take it. We have to find a consistent level of play that enables us to pile up the wins. We'll take the two points tonight and move on."

Krejci scored from the slot at 4:26 after two nice plays by defenseman Torey Krug to keep the puck in the Flyers zone, and then Marchand scored on the rebound of Krug's point shot at 5:44.
"We talked about it after the second period," Krejci said. "Stay positive, keep shooting, keep crashing the net. We get one, we'll get two, and that's what happened."
The Bruins continued to carry the play offensively, including outshooting the Flyers 6-1 in overtime, but Mason was the difference.
"[Mason] was the best player on the ice tonight," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. "He's got two points tonight; it was a heck of a performance from him."

Del Zotto gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 13:56 of the first period, and then Giroux made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 15:28 of the first.
It was the first power-play goal allowed by the Bruins in eight games, ending a streak of 16 consecutive successful penalty kills.

Goal of the game

Leading off the ninth round of the shootout, Gostisbehere chipped a shot that fluttered off goalie Tuukka Rask's shoulder. "Thankfully it worked out," Gostisbehere said. "He got a piece of it, but it had enough to get in there."

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Save of the game

With six seconds left in overtime, Rask jumped across to make a right-pad save on Giroux's one-timer from the left faceoff circle off a Del Zotto cross-ice pass.

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Unsung moment of the game

Flyers forward Travis Konecny made a great move around Krug and broke in alone on goal, but Bruins forward Austin Czarnik raced back to knock the puck off Konecny's stick at 2:25 of the second period.

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Highlight of the game

Backes had a chance to prolong the shootout for the Bruins in the ninth round, but Mason lunged forward and gloved his backhand attempt to clinch the victory.

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They said it

"We simply didn't have the energy through this entire hockey game. We never did really recoup that and get it going. We never had stretches where we had more energy than they did. You look in the mirror. We'll take the two points but we're going to look at it for what it is realistically and make sure we're better two nights from now in Ottawa."-- Flyers coach Dave Hakstol
"It shows character that you can come back in the third period being down 2-0. … We played real good in the third. So that is positive. A point is a point, and we will take it."-- Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask

Need to know

The game was Julien's 727th as Bruins coach, moving him past Milt Schmidt for second in their history. Art Ross is first with 772 games. … Giroux's goal was his first in 10 games. … Jakub Voracek had a penalty shot at 6:23 of the third period. The Flyers have had two penalty shots this season, each by Voracek. He scored against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 29.

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What's next

Bruins: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Flyers:At the Ottawa Senators on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN5, RDS, CSN-PH, NHL.TV)