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PHILADELPHIA -- Steve Mason and the Flyers are playing their best hockey of the season heading into the Olympic break. Its a break team chariman Ed Snider would love to abolish. Mason stopped 38 shots, and Mark Streit and Michael Raffl scored goals, leading the Philadelphia Flyers past the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Thursday night. Mason blanked Detroit 5-0 on Jan. 28 and stopped the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 on Feb. 1. He was only 2:50 away from his fourth shutout of the season, and third in five games, when Nathan MacKinnon beat him for his 21st goal of the season. Mason stopped his first 33 shots. Mason, who signed a three-year extension last month, has been the key reason the Flyers have been able to hang around in the Eastern Conference playoff race. With one game left before the break, the Flyers recent spurt could stall because of the Olympics. "I hate them," said Snider, the Flyers founder. He added: "Its ridiculous, the whole thing is ridiculous. I dont care if it was in Philadelphia, I wouldnt want to break up the league. I think its ridiculous to take three weeks off, or however long it is, in the middle of the season. It screws up everything. .. How can anybody be happy breaking up their season. No other league does it, why should we? Theres no benefit to us whatsoever. If anything, I can only see negatives." Reminded the Flyers reached the Stanley Cup finals during the last Olympics in 2010, Snider laughed. "Maybe I like them," he said. "I forget about that." Claude Giroux, who scored an empty-netter with 20 seconds left, has plenty of time to rest during the break. He was snubbed Thursday by Hockey Canada when Martin St. Louis was picked as an injury replacement for his Tampa Bay teammate Steven Stamkos. Steve Yzerman, the Canadians executive director and Tampa Bays general manager, chose St. Louis over Giroux and Pittsburghs James Neal. "Its a farce," Snider said. "Hes one of the best players in the game. Its ridiculous. Hes better than half the guys on that team. "Anybody that thinks that Claude Giroux doesnt belong on the Canadian team, they dont know anything about hockey as far as Im concerned. Its politics, to a certain degree. He had to pick his own guy. His own guy is good, but Claude is better." The Avalanche, who lost 5-1 to the New York Rangers on Tuesday, couldnt solve Mason until it was too late. The Avalanche called timeout with 1:27 left and pulled goalie Semyon Varlamov in a last-gasp effort at the tying goal. It didnt work. The Flyers scored in the second period, when Streits shot from the blue line was deflected by a defenceman and wobbled past Varlamov for his eighth goal. Streit is heading to his fourth Olympics for Switzerland. The Flyers got a scare when centre Brayden Schenn was checked from behind into the boards by Patrick Bordeleau. Schenn quickly got on his skates, and his teammates went after Bordeleau behind the net. Bordeleau threw his right elbow into Schenns back and the Flyer thumped the board, and then hit the ice. Bordeleau was hit with 5 minutes for checking from behind and a game misconduct. Colorado coach Patrick Roy was red faced and furious as he argued with the officials that the hit didnt merit an ejection. Masons play picked up after a recent pep talk from Hall of Fame goalie Bernie Parent. Mason stopped 14 shots in the first period and made the save of the night in the second when he robbed Gabriel Landeskog with a glove save from his rear. "I think we didnt make it hard enough for him in the first 55 minutes," Landeskog said. "I think the last five, we were in his face, banging rebounds, and trying to bang one home there and made it hard on him. We started throwing pucks from different angles and tough angles and what not." Mason posted a 1.51 goals-against-average over his last four starts, stopped 95 per cent of his shots and had two shutouts. "The job as starting goalie every night is to make sure we provide stability back there, and thats what Im trying to do," he said. Raffls seventh goal of the season, off a nice pass by Sean Couturier from behind the net, early in the third was the insurance the Flyers needed to win their third straight. NOTES: The Flyers had a video tribute and a moment of silence for former coach and general manager Keith Allen. Allen died Tuesday. He was 90. "I love Keith Allen," Snider said. ... Lauren Hart, the daughter of longtime former Flyers broadcaster Gene Hart, sang "God Bless America," alternating lyrics with Kate Smith, who was on a video image. Smiths rendition of the song has been a rallying anthem for the Flyers since the mid-1970s. Stanley Morgan Jersey . Russell Wilson against Darrelle Revis, former teammate Brandon Browner and whatever schemes Bill Belichick dreams up. Donta Hightower Jersey . - Vince Wilfork has played only two career games in Kansas City. https://www.patriotsjerseysale.com/301p-...y-patriots.html. - Veteran Kings defenceman Robyn Regehr, sidelined since Game 1 of the Anaheim series, says hes close to returning. Patrick Chung Jersey . -- Derek Jeter says the New York Yankees have no choice but to move forward now that Alex Rodriguez has accepted his suspension for the 2014 season. Julian Edelman Jersey .Y. -- First, Ryan Miller.SWANSEA -- Two goals each from Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck saw Manchester United beat Swansea 4-1 Saturday in David Moyes first Premier League game as manager of the defending champion. Wayne Rooney, who has reportedly told the club he wants to leave Old Trafford, came off the bench for the last 30 minutes of the match as Uniteds Premier League title defence got off to an impressive start. "Our job is to win the game and the players did it well," Moyes said. "We could have played better at times but I am more than happy with the result." Swansea began the game as the brighter side, with Michu forcing a good reaction save from United goalkeeper David De Gea midway through the first half, before heading the resulting corner wide. But van Persie opened the scoring with an acrobatic strike in the 34th minute. He controlled a deflected, looping pass from Ryan Giggs before volleying past Michel Vorm in the Swansea goal. Welbeck scored his first of the game two minutes later, tapping in Antonio Valencias drilled cross from close range. Swansea manager Michael Laudrup made two changes at halftime as he looked for a response from his team, bringing on striker Wilfried Bony for his Premier League debut and Pablo Hernandez for Leon Brittain and Wayne Routledge. But it was the first substitution that Moyes made, after 61 minutes, which grabbed more attention as Rooney replaced Ryan Giggs in the midst of English media reports that he wants to leave United for rival Chellsea.dddddddddddd United began to push on for a third and Patrice Evra saw his header from a corner cleared off the line by Swansea debutant Jose Canas. Van Persie eventually got the third, his second of the game on 74 minutes, cutting inside on his favoured left foot and curling a powerful shot beyond Vorm and into the top corner from outside the penalty box. Bony managed to get a goal 10 minutes from the end with a neat first-time strike on the edge of the area before Welbeck completed the scoring, receiving a through ball from Rooney and lifting the ball over Vorm and into the far corner of the net with a sublime chip. And Welbeck drew praise from teammate van Persie for his skilful finish after the game. "The fourth goal from Welbeck was unbelievable," van Persie said. "Were very happy, you dont want to lose the first game of the season and they are very hard to play against." Speaking of his well-taken first goal, van Persie said his first touch led him to finish it in the style he did. "The first 15, 20 minutes, they were better than us but the goal changed the game. It was a great pass from Giggs and I had a touch but I felt it was a little heavy so I had to take it as high as possible." As for Rooney, manager Moyes was pleased with his contribution after coming on. "I felt he could do a job coming on, hes not ready to start yet," said Moyes. "He made a great run for the third (goal) and then set up Welbeck." ' ' '