The Philadelphia Flyers snapped their 6-game losing streak with a monumental offensive effort against the stingy Minnesota Wild with a 7-5 victory.
Sean Couturier scored 3 goals and 5 points, Travis Konecny added a goal and 4 assists, and Matvei Michkov chipped in with a goal and an assist as the Flyers’ top line led the way. Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen added a goal and an assist apiece as well and Owen Tippett had 2 assists of his own.
The Wild never gave up after going down 2-0 early in the game but could not keep the Flyers off the board. Kirill Kaprizov added 3 assists and Marcus Foligno scored 2 goals to make things close. Filip Gustavsson allowed 6 goals on 22 shots.
The slumping Philadelphia Flyers kicked off their weekend series with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday in an attempt to break out of their 6-game losing streak.
There were several roster changes made ahead of today’s matinee. Jett Luchanko was returned to the Guelph Storm, Cam York will be sidelined for at least the next 2 weeks with an upper-body injury, and Erik Johnson returned to the lineup.
Tyson Foerster started the game on the fourth line, Garnet Hathaway on the second line, and Samuel Ersson received the start.
As for the Wild, they entered today’s game without a regulation defeat, owning a 5-0-2 record. As always, they are led by Kirill Kaprizov (13 points), Matt Boldy (10 points), and Mats Zuccarello (8 points). Filip Gustavsson earned his 6th start of the year, looking to add to his 4-0-1 record, .941 SV%, and 1.40 GAA.
FIRST PERIOD
The Minnesota Wild have trailed for just 6 minutes and 59 seconds in 7 games to start the season, so as expected, the Philadelphia Flyers score the game’s opening goal just 78 seconds into the game, courtesy of the captain, Sean Couturier.
Couturier’s goal was his first in 32 games dating back to last season and it was also his 500th career point. Rasmus Ristolainen’s point shot was stopped but Couturier was able to clean up the garbage in front of the net for the early finish.
The Flyers then doubled their lead 2:33 later with the first line chiming in yet again. Travis Konecny picked up his second assist of the period after he set up Nick Seeler in the slot before he wired a perfect laser over the blocker of Filip Gustavsson at the 3:51 mark. Matvei Michkov picked up the secondary helper.
With just 2 shots recorded since the Seeler tally – both by the Wild – the game went relatively quiet before Minnesota started to pick things up. After 3 solid shifts pinned in the Flyers’ zone, the Wild earned the first power play of the game after Joel Farabee was nailed for a high sticking minor in the offensive zone with 5:05 left to play.
The period came to a close with the Flyers up 2-0 on the scoreboard and the Wild holding the edge in shots with a 7-3 advantage. The Flyers went without a shot in the final 16:09 after they Seeler’s goal.
SECOND PERIOD
Right off the opening faceoff, Scott Laughton was called for a hooking minor, sending the Wild back onto the power play just 25 seconds in. 1:35 into the penalty kill, Garnet Hathaway was called for a tripping minor and with a 5-on-3 looming, the Wild took an early timeout.
With the Wild’s top unit on the ice for the majority of the time, the Flyers were able to keep them largely to the outside and mitigating their strengths in an attempt to keep the score at 2-0.
In what felt like an inevitability, the Wild got on the scoreboard with 5:06 remaining in the period after Brock Faber deflected a Kirill Kaprizov pass attempt in the slot. Kaprizov and Faber essentially swapped positions with the defenseman positioned in the slot after he initially passed it off to Kaprizov for his first of the season.
33 seconds later the Wild tied things up after Marcus Foligno danced into the slot and wired it past the blocker of Ersson. The Wild countered off the rush and caught the Flyers napping before Foligno cut into the middle of the ice past Konecny and fired the shot low-blocker side for his first of the season as well.
With a delayed penalty coming against the Wild, Michkov wired a shot from the middle of the ice through a maze of bodies then off the post and in for his first goal on home ice with 1:44 left to play. It was reminiscent of his goal against the Capitals, where he found his spot on the ice just inside the blue-line before sniping it. Couturier and Owen Tippett earned the assists.
With 50.8 ticks remaining in the period, the Flyers were nailed for a too many men on the ice penalty, much to the chagrin of John Tortorella.
Unfortunately with just 3.2 seconds remaining Joel Eriksson Ek re-tied the game with a power play tally set up by Kaprizov. Matt Boldy found Kaprizov at the front of the net and while his first attempt was stopped, he was able to sift a pass over to Eriksson Ek on the other side of the net for the easy finish.
The Flyers recorded their first shot since the Seeler tally 5:21 into the period and added 2 more to give them 6 shots through 2 periods of play. The Wild on the other hand peppered 14 towards Ersson in the middle frame and had 21 through 40 minutes – including 8 coming from Boldy.
THIRD PERIOD
2:18 into the final frame of regulation, the Wild took their first lead of the game after Foligno deflected home a Zach Bogosian blast from the point for his second of the game. The Wild won the draw and didn’t need much time to set up shop as Jonas Brodin set up his defensive partner for the blast en route to the deflection goal.
4:15 into the third, the Flyers jumped on their first power play of the game after Marco Rossi got the gate for a hooking minor. It only took them 40 seconds to respond after a lot of patience from the top unit. Eventually Morgan Frost decided to shoot and even though it went wide, it bounced off the boards and right to Konecny at the side of the net for the finish. Tippett recorded his 2nd assist of the game on Konecny’s 4th of the season.
The Flyers first line struck again as Couturier banged home his second of the game from the same spot. The Flyers won the draw, got a point shot from Seeler that was deflected by Konecny, and then Couturier found the loose change in front of the net and continued to hammer away for the go-ahead goal.
Well past the midway point of the period, the Flyers held a 13-2 shot advantage after firing just 6 shots in the first two periods that included 3 in a 37-minute span. However, it was Minnesota that was opportunistic as they re-tied the game from a Jake Middleton point shot that squeaked through Ersson with 6:31 left to play. Kaprizov’s 3rd point of the game positioned him atop of the NHL’s leaderboard with 16.
With 2:24 left to play, Ristolainen gave the Flyers another lead after he went hard to net and finished off the loose change in the blue paint. Michkov, Konecny, and Couturier all had their hands on the play before Ristolainen got the final touch in tight for his first of the year. The assists were Couturier’s 4th and Konecny’s 5th point, respectively.
Off the ensuing draw, Hathaway was handed a hooking minor that was sold by Mats Zuccarello. A melee ensued right after Laughton didn’t take too kindly to Zuccarello’s supposed dive and out of the scrum, the Norwegian forward was handed a cross-checking minor to set up 4-on-4 play.
With the net empty, Noah Cates found Couturier for his hat trick and 5th point of the contest – a much-needed effort from the captain.
With 28 seconds left on the clock, Boldy was handed a slashing minor, effectively ending the game.
UP NEXT
The Flyers are right back at it on Sunday night when they host the Montréal Canadiens (7:00pm ET; NBCSP).
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