James van Riemsdyk, Nolan Patrick, Ivan Provorov lead Flyers past New Jersey Devils, 5-3

The Flyers’ power play and James van Riemsdyk formed a perfect marriage Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Van Riemsdyk, showing relentlessness and a deft touch around the net, scored a pair of power-play goals, and Nolan Patrick deposited a key third-period tally as the Flyers defeated New Jersey, 5-3, and snapped a two-game losing streak.

With Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood sprawled on the ice and out of position, a patient Claude Giroux skated behind the goal line and calmly fed Patrick, who scored from the right circle to snap a 2-2 tie with 12 minutes, 57 seconds remaining.

Van Riemsdyk’s outburst gave him four power-play goals in the first seven games. That’s as many power-play tallies as he scored in 66 games last season.

Giroux (two assists) had an outstanding game on a night he passed Bobby Clarke and became the longest-tenured captain (611 games) in franchise history.

“I thought G competed real hard and set the tone,” coach Alain Vigneault said after the Flyers outshot an opponent (31-26) for the first time this season. “That’s the kind of work ethic we needed. And we found a way to get the job done in the third.”

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The teams will meet again Thursday, also in New Jersey.

In the first three-plus minutes of the third period, the Devils (3-2-1) attacked as Kyle Palmieri was stopped in front by Brian Elliott, and Andreas Johnsson and Damon Severson put shots off iron.

Patrick gave the Flyers (4-2-1) a 3-2 lead, and Joel Farabee made it 4-2 with 7:24 remaining, scoring on a rebound after Oskar Lindblom caused a turnover deep in the Devils’ zone. Ivan Provorov (three points, plus-2) added an empty-net goal to make it 5-2.

Van Riemsdyk’s fifth goal of the season and second of the night -- both on power-play tip-ins off shots by Provorov -- gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead 59 seconds into the second period. The Flyers capitalized on a goalie-interference penalty on Palmieri, who appeared to be pushed into Elliott.

The Devils, however, seemed to gain momentum from killing a penalty later in the period and scored two goals in a 4:44 span to knot the game at 2-all.

With 8:01 remaining in the second, New Jersey, which has the NHL’s second-youngest team, got to within 2-1 on 22-year-old center Michael McLeod’s first goal in 39 career games.

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Less than five minutes later, veteran Travis Zajac’s deflection off the rush got past Elliott, tying the game at 2-2 with 3:17 left in the second.

As has been the case most of the season, the Flyers got off to a slow start and had little offensive-zone time early in the game, getting just one of the game’s first seven shots in the first seven minutes. Elliott kept the game scoreless by stopping Pavel Zacha, who went in alone, with 15:43 to go in the first.

“Moose made some big saves and allowed us to find our game a little bit,” Vigneault said.

The Flyers regrouped nicely, outshot the Devils, 8-3, the rest of the first period, and took a 1-0 lead on van Riemsdyk’s power-play goal with 4:57 left in the stanza.

“We definitely could have cleaned some things up in that period, “ said van Riemsdyk, who had the 31st multi-goal game of his career, “but it was nice to be opportunistic on the power play. We did some good things and some bad things, but we definitely have room for improvement.”

Van Riemsdyk redirected Provorov’s point drive for his fourth goal in seven games. Jake Voracek put the sequence in motion and became the fifth player in franchise history to have 400 assists with the Flyers. Voracek already has seven assists this season.

“We were moving the puck around pretty well,” van Riemsdyk said. “... Provy took a shot that was able to get through and I was able to get a stick on it.”

Van Riemsdyk’s goal was scored shortly after Yegor Sharangovich went in on a shorthanded breakaway and hit the post.

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The Flyers bounced back from being swept by Boston, 5-4, in a shootout, and 6-1, in the first two games of the road trip.

“I feel like we took a step forward from the last two games tonight,” Giroux said.

They did, but the Flyers were also fortunate because the Devils hit iron three times.

“That’s kind of what the hockey gods wanted for us, I guess,” said Wedgewood, the New Jersey goalie.