The Philadelphia Flyers took care of business on home ice as they enter the All-Star break on a rare two-game winning streak after dispatching the Winnipeg Jets, 3-1. The Jets came into this game trying to right their ship as well but they couldn’t beat Carter Hart after scoring on the first shot of the game. Hart made 32 saves and James van Riemsdyk potted the game winning goal with just over 4 minutes to go.
FIRST PERIOD
With this being the final game before the All-Star weekend, the Flyers, who finally snapped their 13-game winless drought, were definitely looking for a way to saddle up a 2-game win streak for the first time since the end of December. However, giving up the game’s first goal 48 seconds in was most likely not in their game plan.
Coming out of their own zone, Nate Schmidt waited behind his own net for his line mates to change. Once he saw fit, he sent out a lengthy stretch pass to which Cole Perfetti and Pierre-Luc Dubois played some nice give and go. Once received back by Perfetti, he dished a perfect pass to Kyle Connor for the one timer and the early 1-0 lead. The Flyers and Carter Hart were seemingly napping because nobody covered Connor or noticed he was even there until it was too late.
After the opening goal, the Flyers started peppering Connor Hellebuyck but he had all the answers early. The Mayhew-Frost-Willman line started it off with a few good chances with Cam York’s initial shot redirecting off Morgan Frost and onto Hellebuyck, who was playing way out of his crease. Shortly after, the Jets misplayed the puck off the boards and as Cam Atkinson recovered the turnover, he tried finding Claude Giroux short-side but Hellebuyck dove back in time for the big save. Then the second line of Konecny-Laughton-van Riemsdyk had 3-4 chances all in front of the net but the Jets netminder was on top of his game and stopped everything thrown his way.
The end of the first period became penalty filled but unfortunately for the Flyers, who drew 2 penalties after only having 3 power plays in their last 3 games, couldn’t do anything with their chances. Giroux drew an interference call on Brendan Dillon but that power play was nullified after James van Riemsdyk took an offensive zone penalty behind the net only 35 seconds into the man advantage. At the tail end of the penalty kill, Oskar Lindblom sprung Scott Laughton for an offensive zone chance and after dancing by Nate Schmidt, he was able to draw a crosschecking penalty. Nothing came out of it but the Flyers headed into the intermission with a 12-7 shots advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
The first half of the second period didn’t produce many chances or scoring opportunities but the latter half had it all. Carter Hart made 2 huge saves that incidentally led to the Flyers tying goal by Travis Konecny. His first save came while shorthanded against Kyle Connor, who was bidding for his second goal of the game. His one time opportunity was eerily similar to the goal he scored but this time Hart was able to slide over and rob the 1st time All-Star.
Shortly after that chance and the Flyers successfully killing the penalty, Konecny was blatantly interfered with by Brendan Dillon in the offensive zone as he acted like a pylon and took him out of the play. The Flyers were caught flat footed and the Jets found themselves on a favourable 2 on 0 with Blake Wheeler and Mark Schiefele, however Hart stood his ground and stopped the Jets’ captain to keep the game at 1-0.
On the ensuing shift, 27 seconds after Wheeler was robbed, Travis Konecny tied the game up with a lethal wrist shot top corner. As Konecny entered the offensive zone, he tried sending a cross-ice pass but it was deflected away into the corner by the Jets. Scott Laughton won his board battle with Mark Schiefele and as the Jets looked to get the puck out of the scrum, Neal Pionk’s pass was intercepted by Konecny who ripped his shot past Hellebuyck off the rush to tie the game at 1.
With a chance to take the lead late in the second period, the Flyers drew another penalty with 1:17 remaining. Keith Yandle was credited with 3 shots and the Flyers were jamming away at the loose rebounds, but Hellebuyck once again stood his ground and kept the game tied heading into the second intermission with only 43 seconds left on the man advantage. After the Flyers outshot the Jets 12-7 in the first, the Jets came back with a 15-10 edge in the second as both teams were 22-22 heading into the third and final frame.
THIRD PERIOD
After killing the remaining 43 seconds and having a few offensive chances, the Winnipeg Jets took an interference penalty shortly after with a high hit on Gerry Mayhew to give the Flyers their 4th power play of the game. As has been the case all season and during this game, the Flyers power play had a few chances, but all from the outside with not much chance of getting past the massive netminder.
The third period was a lot more free in terms of offensive play, the defense was lacking, and there were a lot of choppy centre ice turnovers, as both teams had their chances and odd man rushes. The Flyers played much better in the first half of the third period but seemingly started to lose the plot in the latter half with the Jets circling around Hart. Isaac Ratcliffe playing a shift with Claude Giroux and Cam Atkinson and had a couple scoring chances in front of the net, but Hellebuyck was able to keep the rookie from notching his first career NHL goal.
On the other side of the ice, Carter Hart continued his sensational play, a little mind boggling that a goalie with a 8-14-6 record could have a save percentage of .913% coming into tonight’s tilt. Dubois had the best chance early on at the short side of the net but Hart was able to slide over again and stop his go-ahead goal bid with a huge pad save.
A silver lining from tonight’s game was how noticeable James van Riemsdyk was as he entered the third period with 6 shots on goal. With a little over 4 minutes to go in the third period and the Jets in the offensive zone, van Riemsdyk intercepted a pass at the point and was off to the races with Scott Laughton as they jump-started a 2 on 1 rush. van Riemsdyk passed to Laughton who held onto the puck and took the shot. The rebound landed right to van Riemsdyk who followed the play and was able to get the puck past the reaching stick of Hellebuyck and snap his 5-game goalless drought.
With the net empty on the other side of the ice and the Jets back in the offensive zone, another turnover led to a Flyers goal. Empty net goals seem to be a rare occurrence for the Flyers but after Atkinson stole the puck off a board battle, he found Oskar Lindblom, who shot the puck the length of the ice into the empty netter and essentially iced the game.
Carter Hart made 32 consecutive saves after allowing the game’s opening goal on the first shot, the second line of Konecny-Laughton-van Riemsdyk were noticeable once again and this time around potted 2 of the 3 goals, and most importantly their efforts helped propel the Flyers to their first 2 game winning streak since December 18th and December 29th against the Ottawa Senators and Seattle Kraken, respectively.
UP NEXT
The Flyers are off until February 9th when they play host to the Detroit Red Wings.
