After a thrilling come from behind victory against Minnesota on Friday night, the Philadelphia Flyers head north of the border to take on the Winnipeg Jets.
The Flyers trailed the Wild 3-1 in the third period last night but stuck with it and played hard, eventually leading to goals from Tyson Foerster and Owen Tippett before Joel Farabee’s redirection sealed the deal in overtime.
“I think it’s just been kind of a story of our team this year,” said Farabee after the team showed resiliency again in the win. “It doesn’t really matter what’s going on in the game. We try to pick each other up.”
It was the second game in a row the Flyers had to overcome a two-goal deficit after doing so against the Wild and on Wednesday against Montréal, but tonight they cannot afford to give up chances and fall behind.
The Winnipeg Jets are the top team in the NHL with 60 points and once they take the lead, they very rarely relinquish it.
The Jets lead the league in fewest goals allowed per game at 2.29, not a good sign for a Flyers club that enters this game with the eighth-least goals for per game at 2.86 and has been off to some sloppy starts lately.
However, despite the offensive firepower the Jets possess, their power play has struggled mightily this year. Winnipeg is only converting at a 17.5% clip with the man advantage, which bodes well for the Flyers’ second-ranked penalty kill (86.5%) and could be their saving grace today.
With that being said, the Jets will be without stars Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele tonight, so the Flyers should be able to do what they did last night and take advantage of another banged up Central Division club, but they’ll be without two key weapons as well. Philadelphia announced before the game that Sean Couturier is out with a minor injury and Jamie Drysdale is battling an illness, leaving room for Bobby Brink and Marc Staal to rejoin the lineup.
PHI Record: 22-14-6, 50 pts, 3rd in Metropolitan
WPG Record: 28-9-4, 60 pts, 1st in Central
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, MB
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 1/12/24, 4-3 OTW at Minnesota
Last Game WPG: 1/1/24, 2-1 W vs. Chicago
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (10-5-3, .903 SV%, 2.46 GAA, 2 SO)
WPG Goalie: Laurent Brossoit (7-3-1, .923 SV%, 2.18 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #21 Scott Laughton – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#71 Tyson Foerster – #25 Ryan Poehling – #10 Bobby Brink
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#18 Marc Staal
#33 Samuel Ersson
#79 Carter Hart
Scratches: None
Injuries: #9 Jamie Drysdale, #14 Sean Couturier, #27 Noah Cates
WPG Projected Lineup
#27 Nikolaj Ehlers – #13 Gabriel Vilardi – #62 Nino Niederreiter
#91 Cole Perfetti – #7 Vladislav Namestnikov – #9 Alex Iafallo
#36 Morgan Barron – #17 Adam Lowry – #22 Mason Appleton
#21 Dominic Toninato – #15 Rasmus Kupari – #71 Axel Jonsson-Fjällby
#44 Josh Morrissey – #2 Dylan DeMelo
#5 Brenden Dillon – #4 Neal Pionk
#54 Dylan Samberg – #88 Nate Schmidt
#39 Laurent Brossoit
#37 Connor Hellebuyck
Scratches: #47 Declan Chisholm, #64 Logan Stanley
Injuries: #19 David Gustafsson, #55 Mark Scheifele, #81 Kyle Connor
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 44-16-3-6 against the Jets all-time since Winnipeg originally joined the league as the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999. However, the Flyers are 14-8-3 overall and just 5-6-2 on the road since the Jets moved to Winnipeg.
– Owen Tippett is currently riding a three-game goal streak after scoring in Friday’s victory over Minnesota.
– Joel Farabee’s two-goal outing on Friday was the fifth of his NHL career and his first since May 10th, 2021. He also scored his first career overtime goal in the contest.
– Cam Atkinson and Marc Staal lead all active Flyers in points against Winnipeg with 9 each. Atkinson also shares the lead in goals against the Jets (5) with Sean Couturier, and Rasmus Ristolainen leads the team in assists against Winnipeg (6).
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