The Philadelphia Flyers are now winners of back-to-back games for the first time since early November as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 4-2. Ringing in the New Year with a complete team effort, the Flyers played a very strong third period that was propelled by a shutdown final 10 minutes, plenty of blocked shots, and yet another shorthanded goal.
Scott Laughton tied the game on the power play a few minutes after the Kings had taken a 1-0 lead. Then Owen Tippett tied the game again in the second period with a great individual effort for his 12th of the season, Noah Cates scored a long shorthanded goal that was painted for the top corner late in the third period before Travis Konecny sealed it with an empty netter. Samuel Ersson made 27 saves on 29 shots, including 8 in the first 7 minutes of the third period, while Jonathan Quick made 20 saves on 23 shots. Adrian Kempe opened the game with a power play tally and Phillip Danault re-took the lead with his 12th of the season before the Flyers scored 3 unanswered and snapped the Kings’ unbeaten run in regulation of 7 games.
After finally being able to complete a third period comeback, the Philadelphia Flyers entered the final day of 2022 with a game against the Los Angeles Kings. John Tortorella kept the exact same lineup – which might be the first time all season that has happened – from their 4-3 overtime victory as Noah Cates remained down the middle with Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny on his wings, Owen Tippett, James van Riemsdyk, and Morgan Frost remained up top. Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton, and Wade Allison completed the top-9, and the bruising fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Zack MacEwen, and Patrick Brown completed the set.
Justin Braun remained out of the lineup as Nick Seeler got another game with Rasmus Ristolainen on the third pairing and after a pretty good game from the top-4, Ivan Provorov-Cam York and Tony DeAngelo-Travis Sanheim got another look together. Carter Hart, who the Flyers insisted was going to return for the final 2 games of the road trip, remained out of the lineup as Samuel Ersson received his third consecutive start.
As for the Los Angeles Kings, they entered today’s matinee on a 6-0-1 stretch, 2 points out of first place in the Pacific Division, and Alexander Edler reached his 1,000th game milestone. The Flyers defence was going to have to stand up tall against the big, heavy, skilled, and balanced Kings offence. They are 1 of 4 teams to lead the league with 6 players having 10+ goals, they are second in the NHL behind only Boston with 6 players who have 15+ assists, and tied at the top of the league with 8 players who have 20+ points.
FIRST PERIOD
Offensively, nothing challenged either goaltender to start the game, except for a dangerous scoring chance for Drew Doughty who made a few moves before being stopped by the pad of Samuel Ersson. Near the midway point of the period, Wade Allison lost an edge in the offensive zone and unfortunately collided with Kevin Hayes as the latter’s knee hit the former’s head. The oft-injured forward quickly headed towards the bench and then into the locker room to get checked out by the medical staff, but returned soon after the commercial break.
With 11:19 remaining in the first period, Cam York was called for a tripping minor after the Flyers were about to go from defensive zone to offensive zone. 7 seconds later, Travis Konecny was called for another tripping minor after Konecny seemingly side-stepped the defender at the point but it looked a little questionable. Nevertheless, the Kings were given 1:53 with 2 extra skaters. Unfortunately 57 seconds into the 5-on-3, the Kings scored the game’s first goal as Adrian Kempe’s one-time blast snuck past the arm of Ersson for his 14th of the season.
The Flyers did a good job at being aggressive to start the kill but then sagged back in front of the goaltender and allowed the Kings to set up and inch closer as Drew Doughty was given all the time in the world to set up Kempe.
With only 3 seconds remaining on Konecny’s minor, Carl Grundstrom was called for an offensive zone interference minor after the Kings won the faceoff at the 10:47 mark of the period. Against the 28th-ranked penalty kill of the Kings, the Flyers’ power play looked otherworldly as they were zipping passes at the top of the umbrella between Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, and Tony DeAngelo and created several chances before Scott Laughton and the second unit tied the game on the following shift.
Owen Tippett corralled the puck from a pass by Noah Cates, passed it to Cam York who then set up Laughton in his new office at the face-off dot as he ripped a one-time blast past a surprised Jonathan Quick who didn’t see it coming, as the Sarge recorded his 8th goal of the season, 3rd power play marker, and 6th on special teams (including 3 shorthanded goals).
With 6:48 remaining in the period and 57 seconds after the Flyers tied the game, Phillip Danault retook the lead with a rolling slap shot past the glove of Ersson for his 12th of the season, while extending his point streak to 7 games.
A pinching Tony DeAngelo turned the puck over in the offensive zone courtesy of Alex Iafallo, which allowed Danault to quickly jettison out of the zone, pass it to Viktor Arvidsson, who was able to loop a pass over the stick of Noah Cates who was trying to get back in place of the pinching DeAngelo, and back to Danault for the finish.
With 3:57 left on the clock, Joel Farabee was called for a ticky-tacky slashing minor, sending the Kings back to the power play for the third time in the period – it was evident that the referees in charge of the game were going to call anything borderline. 26 seconds in the penalty kill, Travis Konecny created a scoring opportunity which shook up Quick as his shot clipped him under the mask. As Farabee’s penalty expired, Nick Seeler was called for another tripping minor – the 3rd tripping call of the period for the Flyers – as he got his stick blade under the skates of Quinton Byfield.
The Flyers did a much better job with this opportunity as they were the more aggressive bunch. With less than 45 seconds remaining in the period and 51 seconds left on the man advantage, Joel Farabee was sprung on a shorthanded chance after Travis Sanheim’s clearance hopped over the stick of the Kings at the blue-line. His five-hole attempt was stopped but then the Flyers came right back down the ice with 6 ticks remaining but they couldn’t fire a shot in time. After 20 minutes, the Kings held a 2-1 lead and a 4-1 power play advantage, but a slim 11-10 shot lead.
SECOND PERIOD
After killing the final 6 seconds of the power play, Travis Konecny was cross-checked by Mikey Anderson in another borderline call – but at least it had been consistent – 1:03 into the period. They weren’t able to capitalize on the man advantage but they didn’t quit as they eventually tied the game with 10:58 remaining in the middle frame.
James van Riemsdyk rimmed a pass around the boards from behind the Kings net to Tony DeAngelo who then fed it to Owen Tippett. He made several moves as he stepped past Kevin Fiala and Blake Lizotte before finishing the play top-shelf over Quick’s glove hand for his 12th goal of the season, 2nd point of the day and 20th for the season in his 32nd game.
The final 11 minutes of the period were rather dull, slow, and had lulls of inactivity as the Flyers only fired 2 shots after tying the game and the Kings had 6, but 5 of them came in quick succession after Tippett’s equalizer. Nevertheless, that’s the type of game the Flyers prefer to play as they don’t necessarily have the skill to match up with most of their opponents but as they head into the intermission tied at 2, the shots were still close with the Kings holding a 18-15 advantage but a 39-28 shot attempt lead, and a much better and disciplined showing in middle frame from the Orange and Black. Konecny did try to make a questionable hit with time running out in the period that the Kings didn’t seem to enjoy all that much, which might turn up the heat heading into the final period.
THIRD PERIOD
The Kings started the third period with gumption as they came in wave after wave to start things off. Samuel Ersson had to be on top of his game as the Kings fired 8 shots in the first 7 minutes with several of them being dangerous scoring opportunities. The Flyers survived the rushes but were only ever able to either dump it in or cycle a bit in the offensive zone without generating a scoring chance. The first real scoring chance for the Flyers since the game-tying goal came off the stick of James van Riemsdyk in the inner slot but his shot was gobbled by Jonathan Quick with a little over 10 minutes remaining.
With 7:44 left in regulation, Ivan Provorov was called for a high-sticking minor on Adrian Kempe as the two were battling for position with the former just getting his stick high enough for the call. 45 seconds later, the suddenly dangerous Flyers while shorthanded, took the lead from a Noah Cates point shot that travelled through a maze of bodies and was painted for the top corner of the net.
Cates entered the zone and as everyone went towards the net with speed, he stopped himself at the point, waited deliberately, and took a shot that beat a screened Quick for his 4th of the season and the Flyers’ 7th shorthanded tally of the year – which is league best.
With only 3:36 to go, Gabriel Vilardi was called for a hooking minor as Tony DeAngelo went chasing for a loose puck that jumped out of the offensive zone. The Flyers’ man-advantage is sometimes so infuriating because they take 10-20 seconds to make the most obvious play, which is a slingshot, and then are still not able to enter the zone with possession. The Kings forced a turnover on an errant Konecny pass that the Flyers were able to disrupt at the very last second and then on the counter-rush, Hayes set up Tippett for a very good opportunity but that was also was defended at the very last second to disrupt what could’ve been a wide open net goal.
As the Kings’ penalty expired, they quickly pulled Jonathan Quick with about 90 seconds remaining in regulation, but after some huge blocked shots in the defensive zone, Ivan Provorov rimmed it off the boards to Noah Cates who then looped it over a fallen official and Sean Durzi as Scott Laughton made the run. He got the puck behind the net to Konecny who then finished off the play with a wraparound empty net goal for his 18th of the season and 6th goal in 5 games.
The Flyers held the Kings to only 1 shot in the final 9 minutes, they had some really big defensive plays on the Provorov penalty that kept the Kings at bay, including two blocks by Ristolainen, which enabled them to take the lead and they never looked back.
Samuel Ersson was sharp from start to finish, the Flyers got timely and perhaps opportunistic goals, but they shut down the neutral zone in the latter half of the period, and kept the Kings to the outside whenever they pressed in the offensive zone, and I can’t stress this enough, but those blocked shots were the key to the victory.
UP NEXT
The Flyers close out their California road trip on Monday night against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center before returning home.
