Steve Mason’s season could be one for the Flyers’ books

PHILADELPHIA – Goalies are a strange breed.

It’s not that all of them have personalities as eccentric as Ilya Bryzgalov. They just think differently.

Differently enough to make a living trying to stop vulcanized rubber shot at nearly 100 miles per hour.

Differently enough that when they judge themselves, the first evaluation comes in wins – a team effort – rather than something like save percentage that is more of an individual feat.

So Flyers goalie Steve Mason has a hard time feeling good about his 17-17-11 record even though his save percentage is .929, tied for second highest in the league. Those team efforts haven’t come easy to him this season and once again he had to do a lot of work by himself Sunday.

He made a season-high 46 saves, 22 of them before his teammates could tie the game. Last time he made 46 saves, he didn’t even win. The Flyers lost a shootout to the Islanders that November night.

“Sometimes when oppositions come at you it’s your job to hold down the fort and hold it long enough for the guys to come back and get some goals,” said Mason, proudly wearing the Army cap of the late Lt. Colby Umbrell which is given to the Flyers’ player of the game after each win. “It was definitely one of those games tonight where a goalie does his job and players come out and do their job later on. Definitely a well-rounded win there.”

Actually, the Flyers heavily leaned on their netminder in a 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins to the point where “well-rounded” may not quite be accurate.

“Having Mase there is huge,” Ryan White said. “He made big saves. He pulled one out of the net there early in the first period and made countless big saves. We stuck together as a group, tightened up defensively and had a couple big goals.”

Quietly, Mason has risen up the statistics board for the NHL’s goaltenders. Montreal’s Carey Price seems like the runaway favorite to win the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the league’s best goalie by the league’s general managers, but Mason has had a season good enough to perhaps be a finalist.

Were it not for a poor October, in which he went 0-3-1 with a bloated 3.83 goals-against average and .878 save percentage, and were it not for getting hurt three times this season, he’d be getting more attention.

His .929 save percentage overall this season ties him with Minnesota netminder Devan Dubnyk for second place behind Price. It’s games like Sunday’s that helped him get there. In his own mental highlight reel of the best games in his career, a victory over the rival Penguins makes the cut.

The Flyers blocked 20 shots Sunday, but Mason still had to deal with 47.

“You saw pucks something through, floaters, he was kind of finding and seeing everything,” said defenseman Nick Schultz, who led the way with seven. “He was tracking the puck really well and made some huge saves. He made some big stops for us and he’s been great all year.”

Although the Flyers’ starting goalie would like more wins, he’s certainly cognizant of where his own play is and that his save percentage has him among the best. His .929 save percentage is also better than Roman Cechmanek’s 2002-03 season of .925, which is the best in Flyers franchise history since the stat was officially kept track of in 1982.

“Yeah it is a source of pride,” Mason said. “It is something that a lot of people talk about, the measure of goaltending performance. I’ve just tried to maintain a level of play that I can be proud of going into next season. We will see where we are at in a few games here.”

•Power play clicks: The Flyers’ power play allowed them to get back in the game. They went 3-for-4 on the man advantage and got their home power play up to a league-high 28.8 percent. Their overall 23.7 percent is third in the league.

“We did get the one goal on the power play, and then they scored late on the power play,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “I still thought though through the game we had enough chances.

“Certainly they had some power play opportunities. They had a very good power play.”

•Empty netters: The Flyers were outshot by 27, most since being outshot by 28 Oct. 18, 2008 by San Jose. … Jake Voracek’s two points got him to within two of Sidney Crosby, who leads the league with 81.

Reach Dave Isaac at disaac@courierpostonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @davegisaac.