he room, but his mental preparation, his physical preparation, he wants to be the best all the time. He doesn’t want to give up a goal at all, including in practice. That’

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Philadelphia Flyers know the importance of opening the season with a road victory.Wayne Simmonds scored two goals to lead Philadelphia to a 5-2 season-opening road win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.It was the Flyers’ third straight season-opening victory in a Pacific Division city. Philadelphia has earned at least a point in each of its last four season openers (3-0-1).Oskar Lindblom Womens Seth Jones Jersey , Robert Hagg and Scott Laughton also scored for the Flyers, one of seven NHL teams to win on the road during Thursday’s 10-game slate.“I think it’s tough sometimes when you open at your own rink,” Elliott said. “You have all the spectacles and the show, sometimes it takes away from your focus a little bit and the road team just has to come in and play (its) game.”And while the defending Western Conference champion Golden Knights’ scoring chances outweighed Philadelphia’s, 24-14, Flyers netminder Brian Elliott was outstanding in stopping 23 of the 25 shots he faced in front of an announced crowd of 18,555.Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury allowed five goals and stopped 11 of 16 shots before being replaced by Malcolm Subban with 9:49 left in the second period. Subban stopped all nine of the shots he saw.Vegas coach Gerard Gallant dispatched the notion about his team being distracted by the pre-game festivities, which included the raising of the Pacific Division and Western Conference championship banners.“I was excited and our players were excited to start at home tonight, it just didn’t go our way,” Gallant said. “I thought we played a real good 10 minutes to open the game up. We had a 1-0 lead and then (Shea) Theodore hit the crossbar, would have made it 2-0. After that they pretty well took over the game.”Jonathan Marchessault and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were the only ones to score for Vegas, as the Flyers dominated the neutral zone.“We kind of just wanted to counter-attack their speed, that’s the way they play,” said Simmonds, who led the Flyers with four shots and seven hits. “They have their D jumping the rush a lot of times Sonny Milano Jersey , and we figured if we could bust the zone we could keep their D back. It worked to our advantage and we kept pucks in and we went in and we got them.”Marchessault’s shot from the left dot gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead early in the first period, but Lindblom tied the game after making a nice move around Fleury’s left pad and a backhand into an empty net.Simmonds pounced on a loose puck sitting on the goal line, and poked it into the net to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead late in the first period. His second goal made it 3-1 early in the second period when he slipped a shot under a sprawled out Fleury.Simmonds has five goals in his last two season-openers.Later in the second period, it was Mikhail Vorobyev, in his NHL debut, starting a rush with a stretch pass to James van Riemsdyk, who then fed Hagg, who beat Fleury with a wrist shot to the glove side. Just 1:06 later, Laughton deflected Radko Gudas‘ shot from the point to make it 5-1.Bellemare netted a short-handed goal to cut Philadelphia’s lead to 5-2 with 11:32 left in the game.This marked the first of two games in nine days between these clubs. Vegas will visit the Flyers on October 13 to wrap up a five-game road trip that begins Saturday night.NOTES: Only in Las Vegas will you find crooner Wayne Newton and rapper Lil Jon simultaneously dropping the ceremonial first puck together pregame. … With his two assists, Jakub Voracek reached 400 points for his career. … Claude Giroux’s assist on Simmonds’ second goal moved him past Bill Barber for third on the Flyers’ all-time list with 464.UP NEXT:Philadelphia: Visits Colorado on Saturday.Vegas: Visits Minnesota on Saturday. Jon Cooper didn’t blame Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Tampa Bay Lightning digging a deep hole early in the Eastern Conference final.Two games and two losses brought plenty of criticism of the young Russian goaltender. Cooper wasn’t thrilled about that.”The questions were coming from the other side of the table, and I felt it was the questioning of Vasilevskiy,” the Tampa Bay coach said. ”We don’t. He’s been the guy for us.”Vasilevskiy is the guy who turned the series around for the Lightning, who now lead the Capitals 3-2 and can eliminate Washington on the road in Game 6 on Monday night and move on to the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. After a 6.00 goals-against average and .839 save percentage in Games 1 and 2, he has a 2.00 GAA and .943 save percentage since as the series’ biggest difference-maker.”Just tried to stay positive and play my game,” Vasilevskiy said last week. ”It’s very important http://www.officialbluejackets.com/authentic-adidas-zach-werenski-jersey , especially in the playoffs. Good or bad game, doesn’t matter. Turn the page, start over again and again. That’s how you get success.”Vasilevskiy has found plenty of success this season, his first as a full-time NHL starter. The 23-year-old is a Vezina Trophy finalist after leading the league with 44 wins and eight shutouts.But Vasilevskiy hasn’t made it easy on himself. He rarely does.Cooper saw it during the 2016-17 season when Vasilevskiy struggled during a stretch of 10 consecutive starts when Ben Bishop was hurt and then again late this season when a swoon by him and the entire team almost cost Tampa Bay the East’s top seed. Vasilevskiy bounced back strong each time.”His ability to be able to turn the page now and understand, `You know what there might be a tough night for you, but I’m going to go out the next night anyway and I’ve got to be there for my team,’ – I think that’s where his growth process has really come in,” Cooper said.The same happened between Games 2 and 3 in this series. The shy Vasilevskiy who has been reluctant to do interviews told a pool reporter he didn’t make any adjustments from his worst games against the Capitals to his best.Somehow, he has looked like an entirely different goalie. Chants of ”Vasy! Vasy!” filled Amalie Arena in Game 5 on Saturday night when he stopped 28 of 30 shots, and the highest praise was reserved for inside the Lightning’s locker room.”He’s a world class goaltender, that’s what he does,” defenseman Braydon Coburn said. ”He battles hard every day in practice all season long, and he’s raised his game in the playoffs here.”No doubt his teammates have improved their play in front of Vasilevskiy, with defenseman Anton Stralman saying: ”We always feel like we owe him.” But against a star-studded Capitals team led by countrymen Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vasilevskiy had to raise his game to give Tampa Bay any chance.Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said confidence in Vasilevskiy never wavered Authentic Alexander Radulov Jersey , and he has showed them on the ice evidence of what they’ve seen all season.”He just expects a lot,” Stamkos said. ”You see his work ethic every day in practice. You guys don’t get to see what goes on in the room, but his mental preparation, his physical preparation, he wants to be the best all the time. He doesn’t want to give up a goal at all, including in practice. That’s the mentality he has and that’s why he’s so good.”If the Capitals can crack Vasilevskiy like they did the first two times, there will be a Game 7 on Wednesday night at Tampa Bay. But they’d better figure that out and get an even better game from Braden Holtby because the Lightning are 11-0 in the playoffs when scoring three-plus goals.That record is thanks to Vasilevskiy, who doesn’t like cameras but loves playoff hockey.”It’s definitely a fun time,” he said. ”Lot of emotions. Different hockey. It’s pretty fun to play. Just excitement level is pretty high. A different season.”—AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, contributed to this report.—