Flyers ride big second period past St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- Claude Giroux capped the Flyers' three-goal second period with his 11th of the season and Philadelphia beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Thursday night.

Michael Raffl and Matt Read also scored in the second and Ryan White added an empty-net goal to help the Flyers snap a two-game skid. Michael Neuvirth made 35 saves.

Robby Fabbri and David Backes scored and Brian Elliott made 25 saves for the Blues. St. Louis has lost four of five games in December.

After Fabbri opened the scoring 1:35 into the second period, the Flyers responded with three consecutive goals.

Raffl scored just 2:20 after Fabbri when he tipped in a centering pass from Brayden Schenn for his third of the season and first goal in 11 games. Giroux also picked up an assist on the goal.

Read scored his fifth at 6:39 when he collected a rebound of a long shot from Michael Del Zotto and was able to wrap it around Elliott while falling to the ice. Wayne Simmonds' secondary assist was his 100th assist with the Flyers and 300th career point.

Giroux scored with 1:54 remaining in the second when he skated around Magnus Paajarvi and faked out Elliott. Schenn and Nick Schultz assisted on the goal.

Fabbri scored his fifth goal after he was left alone in the slot. Dmitrij Jaskin found the rookie forward with a centering pass from behind the net.

Backes scored on the Blues' first power play of the game, 7:37 into the third period, after Simmonds went off for hooking. Backes redirected a shot from Alexander Steen and then slipped the rebound past Neuvirth for his eighth of the season.

White scored with 1.7 seconds left.

NOTES: Flyers D Radko Gudas returned after serving a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Senators F Mike Zibanejad. ... Elliott was making his first start at home since Oct. 24. ... The Blues have not won two straight games since Nov. 7-10, a span of 14 games. ... The attendance of 14,428 was a season low for St. Louis.