Owen Tippett and Carter Hart led the Philadelphia Flyers over the Buffalo Sabres for their first win in 5 games, by a score of 5-2.
Owen Tippett opened the scoring on the power play late in the first period for his first goal in 6 games, and the Flyers first tally with the man advantage in 13 attempts. Joel Farabee then broke out of his slump early in the second period, which was then followed up by Tippett’s second of the night, before James van Riemsdyk broke out of his slump with less than 2 minutes remaining in the middle frame.
With the Flyers up by 4, the Sabres threw the kitchen sink towards Hart in the third period and Victor Olofsson scored 2 power play goals – the first 2:27 into the period and the second with 4 tenths of a second left – but ultimately the netminder made 19 saves in the third period and 36 in total for his 18th win of the season. Owen Tippett completed his hat-trick a few minutes after the Sabres had gotten on the board, handing them another heartbreaking loss in their Wild Card chase. Tippett fired 7 shots on goal in 16:45 of ice time, Rasmus Ristolainen led the Flyers with 22:36, and both Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo recorded 2 assists.
Game 2 of 7 of the ongoing homestand brought about the Buffalo Sabres entering the confines of the Wells Fargo Center. The Philadelphia Flyers have been struggling mightily to put it lightly as they have lost 4 consecutive games, were 2-7-1 in their last 10, and were 6-14-4 in their last last 24 games where they have only scored 50 goals. The offense had dried up with Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton, and James van Riemsdyk combining for 14 goals in their last 17 games. The lines were therefore tweaked once more with Scott Laughton, Noah Cates, and Owen Tippett forming the first line, then the trio of Joel Farabee, Kevin Hayes, and Tyson Foerster, followed by Brendan Lemieux, Morgan Frost, and James van Riemsdyk, and completing the 12-forward set were Nicolas Deslauriers, Tanner Laczynski, and Wade Allison.
As for the Buffalo Sabres, they entered tonight off the heels of a disappointing loss and one that was rather damaging to their Wild Card run. They blew a 3-1 lead, as well as a 4-2 lead in the third period, before bowing out in the shootout against the Washington Capitals. They had won only 3 games in their last 10, are 6 points behind the New York Islanders for the final Wild Card spot but hold 3 games in hand, and are still trailing behind the Capitals and the Florida Panthers as well with only a handful of games remaining.
Their offense is powered by Tage Thompson, who had 42 goals and 87 points in 67 games this year, Jeff Skinner who had 29 goals and 67 points in 64 games, Alex Tuch who had 30 goals and 64 points in 59 games – which in it of itself if Buffalo’s first line – and of course All-Star rear-guard, Rasmus Dahlin with 63 points in 63 games all coming into tonight. In goal was Craig Anderson, who sported the 6th-best save percentage in the NHL with a .917 SV%, facing off against Carter Hart who returned from a one-game absence due to illness.
FIRST PERIOD
The first 6-7 minutes didn’t bring about much of anything offensively for both teams with the exception of a sharp pass from Tage Thompson to Alex Tuch – who had Carter Hart beat – but he couldn’t knock down the puck as the pass was just behind him, so the opportunity went wide of the net.
That was followed up by the Flyers coming in on Craig Anderson on a 3-on-1 but this time around, Kevin Hayes decided to shoot the puck rather than make a pass and his shot was blockered aside rather easily.
Then with 12:23 remaining in the first period, Nicolas Deslauriers was called for a cross-checking minor, sending the 4th-best power play unit onto the ice against the 27th-ranked penalty kill that had allowed 7 goals against in their last 19 attempts. The Flyers – Carter Hart – killed off the penalty while fending off 3 shots, 2 of which were scoring chances at the onset of the minor.
With 5:36 remaining in the first period, Jeff Skinner was whistled down for an interference minor, sending out the 32nd-ranked power play that entered the game 0 for their last 12, 1 for their last 22, and had scored 1 goal in their last 10 games. Owen Tippett, who had been snakebitten for some time – goalless in his last 5 games before tonight, while taking 26 shots – ripped a shot glove-side on Anderson to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead for his 19th of the season.
Tippett, who had been averaging 21:48 in his last 9 games, while creating scoring chances in bunches, was robbed earlier in the game on a breakaway opportunity but made no mistake with this shot 46 seconds into the man advantage with Cam York and Tony DeAngelo recording the assists.
The Flyers entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead – their 1st first period lead in 10 games, since February 20th against the Calgary Flames – with the Sabres holding an 8-6 shot advantage. Going back to their first and only meeting of the season, which was a 4-0 shutout victory in Buffalo, the Sabres have yet to score a goal against the Flyers in 4 periods.
SECOND PERIOD
3:53 into the second period, Joel Farabee got the monkey off his back after he scored his first goal in 27 games – and only 5th point – after jumping on a loose puck that bounced off the end-boards and into the blue paint. Farabee set up Tyson Foerster for a one-time opportunity but the latter’s shot went wide and off the boards, fortunately for Farabee who was already at the side of the net, and the puck bounced back to him and he slid it under Craig Anderson for his 10th of the season. Kevin Hayes picked up the secondary assist for his 50th point of the season.
As the Flyers continued to apply pressure, Owen Tippett scored his 2nd goal of the game and 20th of the season after he jumped off the bench without the Sabres noticing, 13:14 into the period. Kevin Hayes made a move towards the net before making a spin-around pass – with 2 Sabres on top of him – to the young forward who continues to impress on a game by game basis, and he ripped a shot past Anderson so hard that it came out of the net in a flash. Hayes recorded his second assist of the period and Ivan Provorov recorded the secondary assist.
With 1:39 remaining in the period, James van Riemsdyk buried his 10th of the season after Scott Laughton’s first shot was blocked before he jumped on his own rebound and sent a pass to van Riemsdyk in the slot. van Riemsdyk – along with Farabee – broke out of his goal slump as this was his first goal in 12 games, 2nd in 18 games, and 4th in 28 games.
The Sabres were clearly upset and 49 seconds later a scrum ensued in front of Carter Hart between Nicolas Deslauriers and Kyle Okposo, among others. Deslauriers was handed a 10-minute misconduct, Wade Allison was given 4 minutes for roughing, and Nick Seeler was given 2 minutes for roughing, while Peyton Krebs and Kyle Okposo each received 2 minutes for roughing.
The Flyers took full control of the second period – much to the chagrin of the Buffalo broadcast who would want you to believe otherwise – scoring 3 goals and outshooting the Sabres 11-9. Farabee and van Riemsdyk needed those goals badly after enduring lengthy droughts and the Flyers continued their dominance over Buffalo this season, making that 5 straight periods.
THIRD PERIOD
39 seconds into the third period, Scott Laughton was called for an offensive zone hooking minor. The Flyers did a relatively good job for most of the penalty kill but Victor Olofsson ripped a one-timer from near the faceoff dot past the glove of Carter Hart for his 25th of the season and 5th career goal against the Flyers at the 2:27 mark of the third period.
The goal also represented the first one to get past a Flyer netminder this season for Buffalo after 102 minutes and 27 seconds.
5:37 into the third period, Owen Tippett scored his 3rd goal of the game and 21st of the season on a nifty breakaway move after being set up by Tony DeAngelo from below his own goal-line. Scott Laughton cleanly won the faceoff to Nick Seeler, who bumped the puck to DeAngelo who then alley-ooped a clearance out to a streaking Tippett, who got way past the defense, in alone on Anderson, and made a wild move before depositing the puck into the back of the net for the hat-trick.
He had taken 7 shots to get his first career hat-trick and that was his 33rd shot in his last 5+ games.
Owen Power was then cross-checked by Ivan Provorov with 2:06 remaining in the game. With 16 seconds left, Nick Seeler was called for a high-sticking minor after the Sabres started throwing the kitchen sink towards the net. Unfortunately, with 4 tenths of a second remaining in the game, Olofsson scored his second power play goal of the period after he was all by himself at the side of net.
Carter Hart had made several consecutive stops with the Flyers collapsing in front of him, but he couldn’t get his outstretched glove down in time to stop Olofsson from scoring his 26th of the season.
Tippett’s third goal proved to be the ultimate backbreaker as the Sabres felt they had a little bit of life after Olofsson’s one-time blast. The rest of the period ticked away with the Flyers carrying a 5-1 lead before the Flyers got careless with their penalties.
The Sabres fired 10 shots on goal in the final 2:06 of the period, Carter Hart shut the door when he was ultimately tested, the Flyers played a strong 60-minute game, and they showed a lot of swagger tonight that had been previously missing over the course of the last few months.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will host Shayne Gostisbehere and the Carolina Hurricanes tomorrow evening (5:00pm ET, ESPN+/Hulu) in the third game of this seven-game homestand.
