The Philadelphia Flyers shutout the Boston Bruins by a score of 2-0 to earn their second win in 3 games.
Samuel Ersson made 23 saves for his first shutout of the season, Tyson Foerster scored the game-winning goal in the second period, and Joel Farabee iced it with an empty-netter.
After an 11-7 edge in shots for Boston through 20 minutes, the game tightened up with both teams mustering 12 shots apiece the rest of the way. Joonas Korpisalo was saddled with the loss after making 17 saves on 18 shots.
After snapping their 6-game losing streak on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers dropped a 4-3 contest to the Montréal Canadiens the following day, setting up another seemingly early must-win matchup, this time against the Boston Bruins.
The Flyers brought Bobby Brink back into the lineup in lieu of Nicolas Deslauriers, Samuel Ersson returned between the pipes with Aleksei Kolosov backing him up instead of Ivan Fedotov, and Egor Zamula remained in the press box with Emil Andrae playing in his stead.
As for the Bruins, they entered tonight’s contest with a 4-4-1 record and a lot of their top guns struggling to start the season – or at least struggling to match their usual output. Flyer-killer David Pastrňák led the team in goals and points entering tonight with 6 and 8, respectively; Cole Koepke followed him with 7 points, and then John Beecher, Mark Kastelic, and Brad Marchand had 6 apiece. The fourth line for the Bruins as you can tell is very dangerous.
Joonas Korpisalo returned between the pipes, looking to improve on his 1-1-0 record, .850 SV%, and 4.58 GAA.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers had some early juice with the first 4 shots in within the first 2 minutes of the game, including Bobby Brink who was absolutely robbed at the side of the net by the pad of Joonas Korpisalo. The Boston Bruins’ ever-dangerous fourth-line countered with 3 scoring chances of their own shortly after, pinning the Flyers’ top line in their own zone.
With 14:44 remaining in the period, the Bruins jumped on the first power play of the game with Scott Laughton sent to the box for a cross-checking minor. 23 seconds into the kill, Travis Sanheim pulled down David Pastrňák and was sent to the box for a tripping minor, giving the Bruins a 5-on-3.
After a fantastic kill by the Flyers, limiting the Bruins to a lot of shots coming from the outside that were either change-ups or blocked, Laughton was jettisoned out of the box and set up a one-time opportunity for Garnet Hathaway, who was absolutely robbed by Korpisalo’s glove to keep the score tied.
A back and forth first period ends in a 0-0 stalemate with the Bruins holding an 11-8 advantage in shots.
SECOND PERIOD
With 14:21 remaining in the second period, Tyson Foerster rifled his second chance through the five-hole of Korpisalo from the middle of the ice to get the Flyers on the board. His first shot whistled just wide, but the Flyers regained control of the puck and Emil Andrae found Foerster for his 2nd of the season. The assist was Andrae’s first point of his NHL career.
On the ensuing shift, Sean Couturier drew a slashing minor against Brandon Carlo, sending the Flyers onto their first power play of the night at the 5:54 mark. Unfortunately they weren’t able to double their lead and in fact, Brad Marchand had the best chance but was robbed in the slot by Samuel Ersson.
With 7:04 remaining, Morgan Frost was called for a high-sticking minor. However, it was another strong penalty kill where the Flyers blocked shots, disrupted passes, and kept the Bruins to the outside.
The period came to a close with the Flyers clinging to a 1-goal lead in large part because of Ersson’s stellar play. The Bruins controlled the latter half of the second and walked into the intermission with a 20-12 edge in shots.
THIRD PERIOD
At the 3:33 mark of the final period, Hampus Lindholm was called for an interference minor but once again Marchand collected the best opportunity and this time around he was inches away from tying the game. Ersson just got on top the puck before it potentially crossed the line and the net dislodged.
Heading into the first commercial break, the Flyers were found guilty of a too many men on the ice minor. Despite the ticky-tack call, the Flyers survived the penalty for their fourth successive kill of the game.
Tempers started to flare after Matthew Poitras and Andrae got into it with one another. The former dropped the latter before Andrae gave him a face-wash. Both players headed to the bench for coincidental roughing minors, sending the game to 4-on-4 at the midway mark of the period.
The game tightened up more and more as the period was winding down with just 7 shots through the first 17 minutes, 5 of which belonged to Philadelphia, including a breakaway chance for Couturier with a shade over 3 minutes to go.
The Bruins pulled Korpisalo with 2 minutes left and while they pushed for the tying goal, the Flyers iced the game with an empty-netter from Joel Farabee for his 2nd of the season.
Ersson played as good a game as we have seen since last season and earned his first shutout of the year, as the Flyers look to make it 3 wins in 4 games on Thursday against St. Louis.
