Flyers Notes: Flyers' penalty killers snuff out the Penguins

PITTSBURGH - Special teams contributed mightily as the Flyers swept a home-and-home weekend series from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Pittsburgh took the league's best power-play (24.8 percent success) into Sunday, but went 0 for 4 with the extra man and allowed a shorthanded goal to Matt Read in the Flyers' 4-3 victory.

In Saturday's 4-0 Flyers win, the Penguins were 0 for 5 and also surrendered a shorthanded score to Read.

"I think Lappy did a great job of video scouting," said center Sean Couturier, referring to assistant coach Ian Laperriere, "and we were well-prepared."

Read said there wasn't anything special the Flyers saw on video that led to the shorthanded goals. On Sunday, Pittsburgh defender Deryk Engelland fell down, allowing Read and Couturier to go on a two-on-one. Read used Couturier as a decoy and fired a left-circle shot to the far side, beating relief goalie Jeff Zatkoff.

"Just tried to take time and space away from them - getting in the right lanes and getting sticks in the right positions," said Read, who excelled on the penalty kill along with Couturier and defensemen Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen.

Conversely, the Flyers were dominating when they had an extra attacker against a Pittsburgh penalty kill that ranks second in the league.

The Flyers were 2 for 3 on their power play Sunday - both goals were scored down low by Wayne Simmonds - and 1 for 4 Saturday. Simmonds (21 goals) has 12 power-play goals, tied for third in the NHL heading into Sunday evening.

"Our power play has been together for three years now, and everybody knows exactly where to go, so it's pretty easy," Simmonds said.

Claude Giroux had two assists, both on the power play, and since Dec. 11 has 49 points, tops in the NHL.

In sweeping the Penguins this weekend, the Flyers held a 75-48 shots advantage. . . . Mason has made eight straight starts but said he wasn't getting tired. "That's what the Olympic break was for, and we had games few and far between, where there was plenty of time for rest," he said. . . . The Flyers swept back-to-back games against the Penguins in the same regular season for the first time since 2006.