BOSTON — Brad Marchand turned the emotion of Boston’s banner-raising ceremony into an early goal. Then, suddenly, the momentum was all Philadelphia’s.
Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek scored 47 seconds apart in the final minute of the first period to give the Flyers the lead, and they held on for a 2-1 victory over Boston on Thursday night to spoil the Bruins’ celebration of their Stanley Cup championship.
Ilya Bryzgalov made 22 saves in his first game for the Flyers, and Jaromir Jagr recorded his 1,600th NHL point in his first game back in the league after three years in Russia.
“We played the Stanley Cup champions. It’s not easy,” said Jagr, one of eight new players for Philadelphia, including three rookies. “They’re probably the best team in the NHL and we’ve got totally a new team.”
Marchand scored midway through the first period for Boston, and reigning Vezina and Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas stopped 27 shots on the night the 2011 Bruins shared the stage with Bobby Orr and a handful of others from the 1972 Stanley Cup champions.
During a half-hour pregame ceremony the Bruins, who clinched the Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia, took the opportunity to pass the Cup from player to player and skate with it in the TD Garden for the first time.
“I think that’s one thing everyone wants to do, is lift it on the home ice,” Marchand said. “That was nice to do.”
Jagr — the NHL’s leading scorer among active players — assisted on the game-tying goal when he led Giroux across the blue line, and he found a space in the middle of four Bruins defenders before beating Thomas.
“Gi made a great play,” Jagr said. “I told him not even Mario Lemieux can make those plays.”
With just 2.4 seconds left in the period, Voracek gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead with a shot through Thomas’ legs.
