The Philadelphia Flyers survived the night and snapped their four-game losing streak after Carter Hart’s heroics and Travis Konecny’s third period goal were enough to take down the New Jersey Devils, 2-1.
Hart made 48 saves, including 19 in the third period, Scott Laughton tied the game in the second period on the power play, and Konecny’s eventual game winner came off a great defensive read by Noah Cates. Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves on 24 shots and Jack Hughes scored a highlight reel goal early in the first period. Something to take note of was Kevin Hayes was benched in the third period and only saw 9:47 of ice time tonight.
Looking to bust out of yet another losing streak on the 4th and final leg of their road trip, the Flyers made a few changes to their lineup with Olle Lycksell being called up and placed on the third line with Scott Laughton and Joel Farabee, and Zack MacEwen returning after a one game absence. Patrick Brown and Max Willman were removed from the lineup due to injury, after a spectacular performance on Tuesday Cam York started on the second pair with Travis Sanheim, and Carter Hart returned in goal. The top-6 remained unchanged as they have been the heartbeat of the offence all season as Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes were flanked on Noah Cates’ line while the miraculous top line of Owen Tippett, James van Riemsdyk, and Morgan Frost looked to turn in another sparkling performance.
FIRST PERIOD
Just 3:26 into the game, Kevin Hayes was called for a hooking minor after Noah Cates lost a defensive zone draw. 53 seconds into the power play, on their 4th shot of the man advantage and 7th shot of the game, Jack Hughes danced around two defenders before depositing the shot past Carter Hart’s blocker for a highlight-reel opening goal.
Lukas Sedlak cleared the puck after a flurry of shots, then it was knocked down by Dougie Hamilton outside of the zone. Hughes picked it up, came in with speed, got past Ivan Provorov and Sedlak and made no mistake for his 16th goal of the season and his 9th in his last 10 games.
The Flyers’ first shot of the game came 5:37 into the period off the stick of Travis Konecny who made a nifty move on the backhand,but it was gloved down with relative ease by Vitek Vanecek. After a brief lull of inactivity for the Devils, the Flyers got sloppy and kept making bad reads, bad plays, and turning the puck over in the most inopportune moments. Hughes was robbed twice and Miles Wood jumped on a turnover from Provorov right in front of the net but Carter Hart fended them off in time, keeping the deficit at 1. Wood almost jumped the gun after another turnover, this time from Scott Laughton near the slot, but Hart was able glove down the opportunity.
With 3:17 remaining in the first period, Noah Cates was high-sticked by Wood, which ended up drawing blood to give the Flyers a 4 minute power play. It was an awful start to the double minor as they weren’t able to set up, they had maybe 10 seconds of offensive zone time, and their only shot on goal attempt in the first 3 minutes was blocked and deflected out of play. Zone entries were problematic, they were too slow in making plays, pucks were being fumbled at the line, and Jesper Boqvist had the only chance in the final 3:17 as it was a shorthanded shot after splitting the defence. The Devils outshot the Flyers 17-7, took a 1-0 lead into the intermission, and had the Flyers on the ropes for most of it.
SECOND PERIOD
3:47 into the second period, Travis Konecny was tripped up by Ryan Graves, sending the Flyers back on the power play. This time around it only took them 24 seconds to make a mark after Scott Laughton ripped a one-timer past Vanecek. The Flyers actually won a faceoff and Travis Sanheim and Laughton played some pitch and catch before the former set up the latter with a one-time opportunity that made its way through a few bodies with the help of Noah Cates screening the goaltender.
52 seconds later, Dougie Hamilton was called for a cross-checking minor after a flurry of opportunities for the Orange and Black on the previous shift. Then 57 seconds into the man advantage, Erik Haula was called for a throwing equipment minor after tossing his stick to Jonas Siegenthaler after he broke his stick on a Laughton slap-shot. The Flyers weren’t able to do much of anything with a 5-on-3 advantage before Yegor Sharangovich had a breakaway opportunity with 30 seconds left on the second penalty. Carter Hart was able to confidently glove it down to keep the game tied at 1.
The New Jersey crowd was loving the penalty kill, they wanted the Flyers to get called for a penalty that wasn’t seen by the referees, then Nicolas Deslauriers and Michael McLeod dropped the gloves in a very spirited bout as the temperature quickly rose.
Then 2 and a half minutes later, Joel Farabee dropped the gloves with Brendan Smith.
The Devils came in waves, shift after shift, odd-man rush after odd-man rush, but Carter Hart was up to the task time and time again against the likes of Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes no less.
With the pressure rising, Nick Seeler was called a tripping minor with 4:49 remaining in the period. After failing to clear the puck, Travis Konecny was hunched over in his own zone before the puck finally found its way out. He followed Jack Hughes with a few slashes before cross-checking him into the boards. The referees called him for the slash instead but the Devils found themselves on a 5-on-3 advantage for 38 seconds.
It was just a manic 38 seconds as Alexander Holtz missed a wide open tap-in after being beautifully set up by Hughes, then Jesper Bratt’s faceoff dot shot went just high, and then Hughes had his close angle shot stopped by the shoulder of Hart with the puck rolling out of the zone as Seeler was coming out of the penalty box. Seeler was able to corral the puck but his breakaway attempt was stopped by Vanecek as he shut down the five-hole.
Scott Laughton’s goal was the only one in the period as the game was tied up heading into the third and final frame. The Devils outshot the Flyers 14-8 in the second period and held a 30-15 advantage after 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The Devils came out of the intermission firing at will as Carter Hart had to make 6 saves in the first 3 minutes, including a huge glove save on Jesper Bratt. By the midway mark of the third period, Hart had faced 10 shots to Vanecek’s 3, but more important was the fact that Kevin Hayes remained on the bench – potentially another benching after some costly turnovers.
The Flyers who entered the period with a 1-4-6 record when tied heading into the final frame, took an opportunistic lead after Travis Konecny went off to the races before shooting one blocker-side for his 12th of the season.
Noah Cates deflected a Damon Severson pass that ended up hitting Konecny flush on the tape, and he then used his speed to get past Dougie Hamilton, and fired a wiry snapshot to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. Cates also did well to try and slow down Severson from catching up to Konecny without taking a penalty.
With 2:11 remaining, Lindy Ruff pulled Vanecek for the extra attacker. The Flyers were more aggressive this time around than in previous games as they were firing full-length shots towards the empty net but to no avail. Carter Hart was tasked to make save after save and by the the end of the game, the young net-minder made 48 stops for his 9th win of the season.
The Philadelphia Flyers snapped their four-game losing streak as the New Jersey Devils’ bender continued with their own winless streak being stretched out to four.
