Winning streak! Flyers win 2 in a row

(AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

The curse of Sarah Palin is finally over. The Flyers won both games in a home-and-home with the Devils on Friday and Saturday to finally get themselves into the win column and out of their early season funk. The two wins puts the Flyers record at 2-3-3 which actually isn't a bad way to start the season.

The big star on Friday night's 6-3 win was Mike Richards, who notched 4 assists. The Flyers did an excellent job of staying out of the penalty box and not giving the Devils a bunch of powerplay chances.

The penalty situation in Saturday's 3-2 overtime win was completely different as each team racks up 40 penalty minutes. There were four fights in the game, including this double-fight:

This was all something that should have been expected given it was the second game in as many days between two rivals. Most of the penalties offset but the Devils still had five powerplay opportunities, scoring on one of them. Jeff Carter scored on a deflection for the game winning goal for the Flyers in overtime.

The Flyers earned both wins without Danny Briere, who will be out 3 to 4 weeks as he recovers from abdominal surgery. In Briere's absence, the Flyers have called up Darroll Powe and re-called Jared Ross and shuffled their top line to include Glen Metropolit at center between Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble. Philly seems like they are a forward short even when Briere returns, unless they plan to play Ross, Powe or Andreas Nodl every game.

The Flyers have finally broken out of their early season slump. If you've followed this team at all, you know how streaky they can be. They started the season with no wins in 5 games so I expect them to run off a 5 game winning streak at some point this season.

Now that the curse of Sarah Palin has been lifted, we can get back to a normal hockey season.