Coming off the heels of their tenth consecutive loss on Wednesday night in New Jersey, the Philadelphia Flyers came to Vegas with something to prove. They wanted to right the ship and knock the chip, or bag, off their shoulder with a much-needed victory.
They would earn just that, in the fashion of a 4-3 thriller over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena to snap their second ten-game skid in five seasons.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers won the opening draw and tried to break though on the board early. They knew that getting the first goal would be very important, and after getting shut out on Wednesday, scoring a goal of any kind in this game was necessary.
Philadelphia stayed true to their game plan and they nabbed the icebreaker at 4:20 of the opening frame thanks to Kevin Hayes. Hayes was able to follow up on a Scott Laughton shot that Laurent Brossoit initially saved. He then spun around and, on his backhand, stuffed the rebound just hard enough through Brossoit’s stick and across the goal line to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Hayes’ goal was just two seconds away from being a shorthanded marker, as Adam Brooks was serving a hooking minor that was called at 2:21. James van Riemsdyk tripped up Zach Whitecloud five seconds after Brooks’ penalty, and Hayes’ goal would come at 4-on-4.
The Flyers were able to preserve their lead for most of the period, largely in thanks to Carter Hart. Hart was spectacular and made plenty of huge saves to keep the Golden Knights off the scoreboard as long as he could. But with 48.9 seconds left, William Karlsson pounded home a beautiful feed from Jonathan Marchessault to tie the game at 1-1.
That would remain the last of the action in period one, with both teams scoring a goal each before heading to their respective dressing rooms for the first intermission. Vegas led in shots on goal 12-10 and were definitely the more aggressive squad as time was winding away.
SECOND PERIOD
The game plan remained the same for Philadelphia: score early and apply pressure. And after generating some buzz early in the second period, they broke though again on a moment to remember.
Max Willman originally fired a shot that was blocked and trickled to the end boards behind the Vegas net. Former Golden Knight Patrick Brown corralled the loose puck and tried to center the puck, and it deflected to an open Willman at the bottom of the right circle. Willman rocketed home the puck into a wide open net for his first NHL goal as Brossoit wasn’t set, and Philadelphia owned a 2-1 lead at 5:53.
As what we saw in the first period, if the Flyers scored early, the Golden Knights would score late, and that’s exactly what happened. After yet another flurry of saves from Hart in the action between goals, Max Pacioretty was on the doorstep to ram home a Shea Theodore with 1:30 to play in the middle frame to make it a 2-2 contest.
That would be the last of the scoring before the second intermission began. The Flyers still trailed in shots on goal as well. They were problematically outshot 16-8 in the period, and 28-18 overall in the game. Hart was giving the Flyers every shot to stay ahead and contend for the win, but he was being hung out to dry on some of Vegas’ chances.
THIRD PERIOD
This “scoring early in the period” thing seemed to be working well for the Flyers, so they might as well keep up with the trend.
On a power play no less, after Mark Stone was sent to the box for hooking against his old teammate in Brown, Sean Couturier gave the Flyers new life with a power play tally.
Keith Yandle was able to spot the former Selke Trophy winner across the ice and he slapped a one-timer past the sliding Brossoit for a 3-2 Philadelphia lead at 3:54.
Claude Giroux also earned an assist on the play, which crowned him as the Flyers’ all-time franchise leader in power play points at 334. His total surpassed the great Bobby Clarke’s 333, a franchise record that had stood since Clarke’s retirement in 1984.
Immediately after Couturier’s goal, Ben Hutton had a great opportunity to tie the game for the Golden Knights, but Carter Hart came up large with the glove to rob the Vegas defenseman. It was one of a multitude of stupendous stops in a short stretch for the Philadelphia netminder to keep the Flyers ahead by a goal.
At 8:35, the Golden Knights would take another ill-timed penalty as Pacioretty was whistled for holding against Kevin Hayes, and the Flyers would head back on the power play for the third time in the game.
In a surprising turn of events, not only did Philadelphia score again on the power play, but James van Riemsdyk of all players finally ended his cold streak on the man advantage. Travis Konecny played a Yandle point shot off the boards across the crease to van Riemsdyk, who rammed home his first goal in 11 games to give the Flyers a 4-2 lead with 10:23 to play in the final period.
Shortly after van Riemsdyk’s goal, Vegas would get their own power play as Konecny was whistled for high-sticking on Alex Pietrangelo. Luckily it was only a two-minute minor versus four, but regardless it was a bad penalty at a crucial juncture in the game.
Thankfully, the Flyers were able to kill off Konecny’s infraction with some acrobatic saves from Hart along with more incredible blocks by Rasmus Ristolainen. Even after the kill, Hart kept making highlight-reel stops as Vegas kept pounding away at the Philadelphia net.
Philadelphia apparently hadn’t learned to quit poking the bear, as they almost immediately went back to the penalty kill just over a minute after Konecny’s ended. But once again, Hart bailed out his teammates and staved off the, um, golden opportunities of the Golden Knights on the power play. Imagine that, an opposing power play being worse than the Flyers’ power play in a game!
The Flyers would be set up for one more challenge while shorthanded with 2:01 left in the period. Sean Couturier was called for a ticky-tack slash against Mark Stone, but nonetheless Vegas made the Flyers pay. Pacioretty racked up his second goal of the game on a one-timer from the top of the right circle and through traffic to beat Hart and make it a 4-3 game with 1:45 to play.
Despite the late setback, Philadelphia and their goaltender held strong and kept the Golden Knights at bay and finally ended their long drought with a hard-fought 4-3 victory at T-Mobile Arena.
There were plenty of positives to take away from this one; the power play striking twice, Max Willman’s first NHL goal, Carter Hart stopping 41 Vegas shots, Claude Giroux making Flyers history. The list goes on and hopefully this can be a great team-building effort that the Flyers can take a massive leap from and propel themselves back into playoff contention this season.
UP NEXT…
The Flyers will stay in the desert and travel to Glendale for a Saturday night matchup against the Arizona Coyotes tomorrow night at Gila River Arena at 9:00pm ET. Former Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere is tied for the Coyotes’ team lead in total scoring and will face his former teammates for the second time this season in the finale of this season series. The Flyers won the last game against Arizona 3-0 at Wells Fargo Center on November 2nd.
