The Philadelphia Flyers (28-19-6) earned their third consecutive victory coming out of the break after defeating the Seattle Kraken by a score of 3-2.
Scott Laughton opened the scoring on the power play before Tomàš Tatar tied things up with less than 3 minutes to play in the first. The Flyers challenged Tatar’s goal, lost it, and were assessed a penalty but Ryan Poehling scored another shorthanded goal to give the Flyers the lead.
Jared McCann scored 36 seconds into the third before Sean Couturier scored the game-winning goal about 5 minutes later. The Flyers held the Kraken to just 2 shots in the third period – McCann’s goal and another McCann shot nearly 19 minutes later – and 9 in the final 2 frames.
Joey Daccord made 35 saves and was the key reason why this game wasn’t lopsided. Cal Petersen made 17 saves for his 2nd win of the season in his first start since November the 11th.
Looking to extend their winning streak to 3 games, the Flyers welcomed Dave Hakstol and the Kraken within the confines of the Wells Fargo Center for their first game since their bye week. Despite securing a 4-1 victory against the Winnipeg Jets in their last game, John Tortorella decided to change things up by bringing back Nicolas Deslauriers and Rasmus Ristolainen in lieu of Egor Zamula and Marc Staal – going back to the 12/6 formation.
Tortorella wasn’t all too pleased with their performance after a sublime first period as the club look to have coasted the rest of the way as evidenced by the Jets outshooting the Flyers 25-8 in the final 2 periods. Cal Petersen was also given the nod tonight with the Flyers looking to give Samuel Ersson some much needed rest with a daunting schedule upcoming.
As for the Kraken, it’s been an up-and-down season after a surprise playoff run last year. The last time these two teams met, the Kraken were in the midst of their season-long 9-game winning streak with the Flyers being their fourth scalp. Since the streak ended they’ve gone 2-5-1 with just 18 goals to show for.
Oliver Bjorkstrand paced the club with 40 points, Jared McCann led the team with 20 goals, and Vince Dunn was right in between both players with 37 points in just 46 games. Offense has been a struggle as they entered tonight’s contest ranked 27th in goals.
Joey Daccord was given the nod tonight as he has started the previous 6 games, 13 of their last 14 games, and 21 of their last 23 games. He has been one of the biggest surprises and reason why the Kraken are hanging around with his 15-9-9 record, 2.32 GAA, and .921 SV%.
FIRST PERIOD
After Scott Laughton was robbed on his breakaway attempt, the Seattle Kraken must’ve believed that Joey Daccord had covered the puck because Vince Dunn blatantly cross-checked Garnet Hathaway in the back, which led to the Flyers first power play at the 3:15 mark.
Laughton was not to be denied, however, as he ripped an absolute seed of a one-timer past the glove of Daccord from the right faceoff dot for his 6th goal of the season. The new-look first unit was not able to do much of anything, but the second unit got to work in quick order before setting up Laughton’s tally at the 4:36 mark.
40 seconds later, Rasmus Ristolainen was called for a hooking minor against Tomàš Tatar who was attempting to jettison on an odd-man rush after forcing a turnover at the blue-line. The Flyers did a fantastic job at keeping the Kraken at bay on yet another great penalty killing showcase.
With 2:51 remaining in the period, Tatar snapped home a heavy wrist shot from the slot to get the Kraken on the board. Adam Larsson whipped the pass to his fellow point-man Vince Dunn, who then found Tatar unmarked.
The Flyers decided to challenge the goal for a potential offside call and although it was really bang-bang, the call on the ice stood and the Flyers were handed a 2-minute minor for losing the challenge.
That turned into a favour for the Flyers as the “power kill” struck for the 12th time this season. Ryan Poehling who scored a shorthanded goal off the rush against the Winnipeg Jets, gave us a dose of déjà vu as he corralled Hathaway’s alley-oop clearance and snapped it through the five-hole of Daccord with 1:46 remaining.
The period came to a close with the Flyers heading into the intermission with a 2-1 lead and a 13-10 edge in shots.
SECOND PERIOD
2:31 into the period, Morgan Frost was taken down by a Yanni Gourde slash on his way into the slot for the Flyers’ second power play of the night. The Flyers did everything but score as they were in the offensive zone for the entire two minutes.
With the Kraken struggling to create offense – no shots to that point in the second period – Sean Walker was called for a slashing minor in the offensive zone with 10:01 left to play in the period. Cal Petersen and Nick Seeler both made a few saves each to keep the Flyers on top after a potentially momentum-shifting power play.
The period came to a close with the Flyers still holding onto their 1-goal lead heading into the final frame of regulation and a 24-19 edge in shots through 40 minutes of play.
THIRD PERIOD
Just 36 seconds into the third period, Jared McCann added to his team-leading tally with his 21st of the season after his shot deflected off of Sean Couturier‘s stick and over Petersen’s shoulder. Jaden Schwartz made a sneaky good play by lifting Couturier’s stick, allowing McCann to get to the puck first.
After Joel Farabee was robbed off the rush, they won the ensuing faceoff and reclaimed the lead after Travis Sanheim‘s point shot was deflected in by the faceoff winner in Sean Couturier for his first goal in 12 games and 11th of the season at the 5:30 mark.
9 seconds later, Will Borgen was assessed a delay of game minor, where the Flyers came very close to doubling their lead but Travis Konecny‘s breakaway attempt went just wide. The Flyers hopped on yet another power play with 10:51 remaining after Jamie Oleksiak was called for an interference minor against Konecny. Unfortunately no dice, again.
With 1:44 to go, the Kraken pulled Daccord for the extra man. The Kraken’s only shot on goal in the third period was McCann’s marker 36 seconds into the frame before he got their second shot with 30.4 seconds left. Laughton just missed his second goal of the game by a millisecond but the Flyers claimed the 3-2 victory nonetheless.
UP NEXT
The Flyers wrap up their 3-game homestand against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night (7:00pm ET, NBCSP).
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