Ducks’ Kyle Palmieri scores twice in 3-2 win over Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — With one errant stick to the face, Teemu Selanne went down in a heap, losing teeth and blood.

Just not the game.

Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night.

GAME SUMMARY: Ducks 3, Flyers 2

Andrew Cogliano also scored for the Ducks and Jonas Hiller had 26 saves.

“We were able to start to get it going in the second and then poured it on them in the third,” Palmieri said.

The Ducks won it without Selanne, in his 22nd season, on the ice after he took Luke Schenn’s high stick to the face. Selanne went down on the corner ice, then skated off on his own power straight to the locker room.

His mouth was bloody and swollen, and the Ducks had no idea if he’d miss any games. They play again Thursday at Boston.

The Ducks hope for a quick return.

“He’s a great athlete and a great person, just great to have around,” defenseman Hampus Lindholm said.

Palmieri scored on a tip-in with 4:09 left in the game to help the Ducks win their third straight game. He also scored the tying goal early in the period.

Hiller and the Ducks killed one final Philadelphia power play that extended into the final minute to hang on for the win.

Matt Read and Vinny Lecavalier scored for the Flyers.

The Ducks answered an early 2-0 deficit with three straight goals to get their latest road win. The Ducks improved to 3-2 on their eight-game road trip, with games at Boston, Buffalo and the New York Rangers still ahead.

“It’s big for us to start to link together these wins,” Palmieri said. “Especially on the road, it’s huge.”

Palmieri tied the game when he stripped Lecavalier of the puck and knocked it through Steve Mason’s legs to make it 2-2.

“I was able to get in front of it and keep him in front of me, and the puck took a nice bounce for me,” Palmieri said. “I was able to get down to the races.”

He converted a perfect pass in the slot from center Nick Bonino to score the winner.

The Ducks outworked and outhustled a Flyers team that showed little spark until the final power play. They pulled Mason for the six-on-four edge and still couldn’t get the score.

“I think we didn’t have the effort we needed to close out the game,” Mason said.

Cogliano cut it to 2-1 in the second period when a fortuitous bounce off the backboards hit his stick at the right time to poke one past a stunned Mason. Mason had 34 saves.

Read gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead when his first shot came straight off Hiller’s pads and back to him, allowing him to punch it in for his third goal in three games.

Lecavalier’s fifth of the season, this one on the power play, made it 2-0. Lecavalier was coming off a three-goal performance in Philadelphia’s 5-2 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night.

The Flyers went the first nine games without scoring more than three goals, and they hoped to build off Saturday’s outburst.

Instead, it was back to the scoring drought and a dearth of opportunities. They attempted 15 shots in the first period, and only 13 more the rest of the way. They had no response to Anaheim’s attack in the third — the Ducks at one point had outshot them 13-3 and finished with a 16-6 edge.

“We stood around and we were watching,” Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said. “That’s all I can really say. We stood around and started watching them instead of playing ourselves.”

They caught a break when Mathieu Perreault’s goal was waved off upon review because of a high stick, an expected call after he pretty much bunted the puck into the net.