Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Goalie nods: Emery starts for Flyers, Backstrom in for Wild

rayemeryglare

News and notes from around the crease...

Flyers go with Emery vs. Pittsburgh

“Sugar” Ray Emery will be in goal for Philly tonight against heated rivals Pittsburgh.

Emery gets the start ahead of Steve Mason, who was perfect on Tuesday night against Ottawa by stopping all shots faced in a 5-0 shutout victory. Emery’s last game came on Thursday in a loss to New Jersey in which he played well, stopping 22 of 24 shots.

Emery will be going up against Marc-Andre Fleury. The Pens goalie has played well of late -- allowing just two goals on 32 shots in a 2-1 loss to St. Louis on Saturday -- but is looking for a win after suffering defeats in his last two outings.

Backstrom gets a shot

After losing his No. 1 gig to Josh Harding, Niklas Backstrom will be back in goal tonight for the Wild against Toronto.

An early-season injury to Backstrom paved the way for Harding to take the starting job, but now it’s Backstrom’s turn to take advantage of an opportunity. Harding is sick, but it’ll take a herculean effort by Backstrom for the Wild to consider turning the net over to him full-time. Backstrom’s last outing wasn’t good -- allowing five goals on 28 shots in an Oct. 28 loss to Chicago -- and he hasn’t played since, so rust could be a factor.

No official report on who’ll start for Toronto tonight, but it appears Jonathan Bernier is likely.

Elsewhere...

-- There’s only one other game tonight, and that’s Dallas at Edmonton. Neither the Stars nor the Oilers have confirmed who’ll be starting, but early projections figure it’ll be Kari Lehtonen for Dallas and Devan Dubnyk for the Oilers.