The Philadelphia Flyers continued their winning ways, extending their streak to 3 games with a 4-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes. The loss snapped Arizona’s 5-game winning streak and the victory was Carter Hart’s 92nd of his career which put him into a tie for 5th most in franchise history.
The Flyers received a goal from Joel Farabee, Cam York, and 2 goals from Travis Konecny – including a shorthanded marker. The Coyotes lone goal came from Lawson Crouse near the end of the first period. Hart made 25 saves to earn his 8th win of the season, while Connor Ingram allowed 4 goals on 26 shots.
The biggest matchup heading into this game was the 5th ranked power play of the Coyotes going head to head with the 6th ranked penalty kill of the Flyers with the latter coming through with a perfect 3/3 night and a shorthanded tally.
The Flyers traveled out west to face the suddenly-hot Coyotes, who were riding a 5-game winning streak where they had defeated the previous 5 Stanley Cup champions. After taking down the Pittsburgh Penguins in their most recent home-and-home stretch, the Flyers planned on just one change to the lineup with Egor Zamula replacing Marc Staal but Ryan Poehling was a late scratch with an illness and in his place the recently called up Olle Lycksell took his spot – making his season debut. Carter Hart got his 2nd consecutive start as he looked to improve on his 7-6-1 record, .913 SV%, and 2.55 GAA.
The Coyotes had started the season 13-9-2, were 6-3-1 in their last 10, and as we mentioned were riding a 5-game win streak. Entering play today, the Coyotes were 10th in goals, had the 5th-best power play, 3rd highest shooting percentage, but were 31st in shots on goal.
Clayton Keller paced the club with 24 points in 24 games, followed by Nick Schmaltz with 20, Matias Maccelli with 17, Nick Bjugstad with 16, and Michael Carcone, Lawson Crouse, and Alex Kerfoot with 15 apiece. Goaltender Connor Ingram has been sensational to start the season as he held an 11-3-0 record with 2 shutouts, a 2.23 GAA, and a .930 SV% compared to Karel Vejmelka, who lost his starting gig with a 2-6-2 record.
FIRST PERIOD
With John Tortorella reiterating the other day that he didn’t plan on using Olle Lycksell quite yet, the youngster was forced into the lineup because Ryan Poehling was dealing with an illness. To start the game, Scott Laughton was being double shifted, taking shifts with his usual line and the fourth line wingers as Tortorella was cherry picking when he was going to use Lycksell.
Right off the draw with 9:49 remaining in the period, Travis Konecny ripped a shot off the shoulder of a befuddled Connor Ingram for an early 1-0 lead. Sean Couturier – the birthday boy in his hometown – won the faceoff cleanly to Konecny who made no mistake with the quick shot.
3:07 later, Joel Farabee gave the club a 2-0 lead after he finished off a pass from Cam Atkinson in the blue-paint. Atkinson’s pass went through the legs of Michael Kesselring and right to the streaking Farabee, who went hard to the net as he snapped his 7-game goal drought and Atkinson snapped his 5-game pointless drought.
With 4:29 remaining in the period, Travis Sanheim was called for a high-sticking minor, pegging the 5th best power play versus the 6th ranked penalty kill. 2 seconds upon the expiration of the power play, the Coyotes cut the deficit in half courtesy of Lawson Crouse’s 11th of the season.
Jason Zucker was coming down the wing and before going around the net he dropped a pass to Matias Maccelli who then whipped a pass himself to Crouse who was left all alone in the slot with 2 defensemen going towards Maccelli.
The period ended with the Flyers up 2-1 on the scoreboard and 8-7 on the shot-clock.
SECOND PERIOD
3:30 into the period, Couturier was called for a hooking minor to send the lethal Coyotes back on the power play. With 53 seconds remaining on the penalty kill, Konecny jumped out on a breakaway after being setup by Nick Seeler and buried the opportunity for his 2nd goal of the game, 14th of the season, and the Flyers’ league-leading 7th shorthanded tally of the year.
For the third time in the game, the Flyers went back to the penalty kill after Lycksell was called for a boarding minor with 5:29 left to play. This time around the Coyotes were implanted in the offensive zone after Laughton’s stick broke but they survived to tell the tale and killed off their third successive power play.
The Flyers led the way with 8 shots to the Coyotes 7 in the period and 16-14 through 40.
THIRD PERIOD
107 seconds into the third period, Cam York walked around Kesselring before firing a hard snap-shot past Ingram for a 4-1 lead.
York walked in from his side of the point, shifted past Kesselring, before curling and dragging in the faceoff dot for his 4th of the season and first goal in his past 7 games.
With the Flyers parking the bus, the game was virtually locked up after York’s goal. The Coyotes pressured from time to time but nothing that really tested Hart or the Flyers. Shots were hard to come by in this game as the both clubs fired just 26 apiece.
Nevertheless, the Flyers finished off the Coyotes, extended their winning streak, and snapped Arizona’s lengthy 5-game streak in the process.
UP NEXT
The Flyers visit the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night (9:00pm ET, NBCSP) as they look to extend their winning streak to 4 games.
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