Coming off a 4-1 victory on Thursday against Detroit, the Philadelphia Flyers (14-12-4, 4th Metropolitan) are back in action on Saturday against the Minnesota Wild (19-6-4, 2nd Central).
Thursday’s game saw alternate captain Scott Laughton reach the 100-goal mark as he also racked up a career-high four goals in a single game, the first time a Flyer has done so since John LeClair in 2002.
“It’s pretty cool,” said Laughton postgame. “I mean, two empty-netters but I know they all count. I think 100 goals. You don’t look at it really but [I’ve] been in the league a long time and it’s hard to score goals in this league, and to score 100 is pretty cool to me, pretty special. I know it’s not much compared to some guys, but it feels pretty cool to get that especially the way I did with TK.”
After a three-game losing streak that featured sloppy and undisciplined play, the Flyers seem to have themselves back on track and will look for a third consecutive victory today. Travis Konecny is currently riding a four-game point streak, Matvei Michkov has points in five of his last six contests, Owen Tippett has seemed to regain his consistent scoring touch, and Laughton is coming off the best game of his career.
However, despite a memorable night last game, Laughton and the Flyers now must turn the page to facing one of the most dangerous teams in the NHL.
The Wild sit third in the league standings and trail only Winnipeg for first place in the Central Division. Minnesota doesn’t score an eye-popping amount of goals, ranking T-13th in goals for with 92 with Philadelphia and Vancouver, but they play a strong defensive style of hockey and have one of the best goalie tandems in the league. The Wild are 5th in fewest goals allowed (76) and are 2nd in team save percentage (.912).
That being said, the Flyers do know how to score against this team. Philadelphia hosted Minnesota back on October 26th and won 7-5 behind five-point performances from Konecny (1g, 4a) and Sean Couturier (3g, 2a).
Minnesota is also going through the injury bug right now, taking out some of their top players from the lineup. Forward Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jake Middleton are out. Forward Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jonas Brodin have been out as well, but they did practice on Friday and were activated ahead of Saturday’s game. For the Flyers’ sake hopefully they’re a little rusty. The Wild claimed Travis Dermott off waivers from Edmonton to fill the gap on defense in the meantime. In any case, the Flyers must take advantage of those injuries today.
Despite those injuries, the Flyers will still have their hands full containing some of the Wild’s players up front, most notably Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov has kept his name in the early running for the Hart Trophy with a tremendous season so far, producing 18 goals and 25 assists for 43 points in 28 games. The Russian star also boasts a +19 which leads all forwards, and he sits 3rd in points and T-4th in goals across the NHL.
Sam Ersson will draw today’s start for the Flyers. The Swede was victorious in goal in the last game against the Wild and will look for his third win in his last four starts. His season statline currently reads 6-3-2, .893 SV%, 2.83 GAA, 1 SO.
When: 12/14/24, 2:00pm ET
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, Flyers Radio 24/7
Last Game PHI: 12/12/24, 4-1 W vs. Detroit
Last Game MIN: 12/12/24, 7-1 L vs. Edmonton
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #39 Matvei Michkov
#71 Tyson Foerster – #27 Noah Cates – #10 Bobby Brink
#21 Scott Laughton – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#33 Sam Ersson
(#35 Aleksei Kolosov)
MIN Projected Lineup
#97 Kirill Kaprizov – #23 Marco Rossi – #12 Matt Boldy
#17 Marcus Foligno – #38 Ryan Hartman – #90 Marcus Johansson
#94 Jakub Lauko – #89 Frédérick Gaudreau – #13 Yakov Trenin
#19 Devin Shore – #22 Marat Khusnutdinov – #39 Ben Jones
#47 Declan Chisholm – #46 Jared Spurgeon
#44 Travis Dermott – #7 Brock Faber
#4 Jon Merrill – #24 Zach Bogosian
#29 Marc-André Fleury
(#32 Filip Gustavsson)
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