After going down 2-0 in fluky fashion in the first period, the Philadelphia Flyers clawed their way back into the game and went on to defeat the Montréal Canadiens, 3-2, in a shootout.
There were plenty of things to celebrate tonight, between Pride Night and Jamie Drysdale’s first game as a Flyer, and the team capped it off with an important victory to remain in third place in the vaunted Metropolitan Division.
“It’s a pretty unbelievable environment and a really fun spot to play,” said Drysdale after the game. “It was a hell of a first game to be a part of.”
“I think that’s what we talked about, just sticking to it,” said Samuel Ersson after the game. “We were doing all the right things. We were just maybe not getting the bounces. Just keep working, have patience, and good things are gonna come our way.”
After an oddly fashioned two-goal deficit, the Flyers definitely stayed with that plan and were able to stick with it en route to their 21st victory of the season as they have now reached the exact halfway point of the season.
FIRST PERIOD
Just 89 seconds into the contest, the visiting Canadiens got on the board first as Justin Barron ripped a shot from the right point that glanced off Sean Monahan and in past a bewildered Samuel Ersson.
The Flyers pushed back and made life difficult for Cayden Primeau and the Canadiens, but the young goaltender kept the home team off the board.
With 8:32 remaining in the first period, a real fluky goal was scored after a David Savard shot took a ride up Morgan Frost’s stick while he was battling with Juraj Slafkovský in front, and the puck trickled in the air and floated over Ersson’s shoulder to double Montréal’s lead.
The goal was originally credited to Slafkovský before being awarded to Savard.
Philadelphia had their backs against the wall even harder and were finally able to respond shortly afterwards as Owen Tippett took a shot into a wide open cage after a flurry of passes to pull the Flyers within one.
The Flyers almost tied the game up on a Ryan Poehling shot while a mad scramble in the crease ensued, but the puck was ruled to have stayed out of the net upon review and the score remained 2-1.
2-1 Canadiens is how the first twenty minutes would wrap up, despite the Flyers outshooting the visitors 10-2 and outplaying them for a solid portion of the period.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers once again kept the pressure on Montréal, and just over eight minutes into the middle stanza they forced a costly error. Jordan Harris flipped the puck out of play in his zone for a delay of game penalty, the first minor of the night for the Canadiens.
New addition Jamie Drysdale fed the puck to Morgan Frost and #48 in orange wired a shot with traffic in front past Primeau to tie the game at two goals apiece on the power play.
Despite allowing the tying goal, the Canadiens tightened up a bit and played a more even period. That much was evidenced by the Flyers only leading 7-6 in shots during the second frame, even with another power play opportunity late.
THIRD PERIOD
Montréal was able to open the ice up a bit more and had a few quality scoring chances, but Ersson was able to keep them at bay while the Flyers chipped away at Primeau.
Both goaltenders were the stars of the period and made some key saves to keep the contest evened up, and this game would need extra time to determine a winner.
OVERTIME
The Flyers gained possession first and went right to work, dancing around with the puck and generating high-quality scoring opportunities. Drysdale had a shot that was stopped high on the near-side, and he also set up Frost for a mini-breakaway that Primeau shut down.
The best chance of overtime came courtesy of a Scott Laughton one-timer that Primeau stretched across for to steal, and after one last rush from Tippett at the buzzer, we would head to a shootout.
SHOOTOUT
Sean Couturier was the first shooter of the skills competition and made no mistake on Primeau to put the Flyers ahead.
Samuel Ersson was then able to shut the door on Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Jesse Ylönen in succession to seal the deal as the Philadelphia Flyers came from behind and defeated the Montréal Canadiens, 3-2.
3 STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Sean Couturier – PHI, 2) Morgan Frost – PHI, 3) Cayden Primeau – MTL
UP NEXT
The Flyers will hit the road for three games beginning on Friday night when they take on the Minnesota Wild (8:00pm ET, NBCSP) at Xcel Energy Center.
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