The Philadelphia Flyers, after giving away two points on Friday, redeemed themselves in a big way on Saturday as they defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-2 and further solidified their chances of making the playoffs as we enter March.
Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster twice, and Cam York scored for Philadelphia while Felix Sandström stopped 24 shots in his season debut. Foerster has now scored nine goals in his last nine contests after being snakebitten to begin the season.
“He has had a good run here,” said head coach John Tortorella after the game on Foerster. “I’ve been looking to him the whole time because he was getting chances, they just weren’t going in for him.
“It’s easy for a coach to look at a guy for scoring but also know he’s probably one of your best defensive players too, so I’ve been looking his way all year long.”
While Foerster shone at one end, Sandström earned the victory in his first NHL appearance since April 13th, 2023 and looked awfully impressive when preserving the lead.
“The thing that I liked about it (is) he closed the game out. I think that was his next step,” said Tortorella on his goalie. “I thought that was his struggles when we had him here last year was closing a game out. Made some key saves at key times. I’m happy for him. He looked confident.”
Those two players will be important pieces of Philadelphia’s puzzle moving forward this year, and tonight was a prime example of that.
FIRST PERIOD
Right off the hop, the Flyers had some juice and peppered Mads Søgaard with shots and had the Senators hemmed into their zone.
Their quick start was rewarded with a goal courtesy of Joel Farabee, who erased a 14-game drought with his 18th of the season.
The Flyers headed to their first power play shortly after as Jakob Chychrun knocked down Tyson Foerster away from the puck. In a battle of the second-worst penalty kill against the second-worst power play in the league, the Senators killed off the penalty.
Philadelphia would get another opportunity shortly afterwards as Ridly Greig knocked down Felix Sandström in his crease, sending the Flyers to their second power play.
The Flyers definitely looked better on this attempt, forcing Søgaard to make some tough saves but the big Dane was up to the challenge. Ottawa would live to tell about the penalty thanks to their netminder.
With 8:53 remaining, the third time would hopefully be the charm as Artem Zub was called for slashing Sean Couturier, though Shane Pinto looked to be the guilty party, but regardless the Flyers were on their third man advantage.
Unfortunately, it was wash, rinse, repeat as Ottawa staved off another Flyers power play.
1-0 is how the first twenty minutes wrapped up in favor of the Flyers. They dominated with a 19-4 shots advantage heading into the locker room.
SECOND PERIOD
Ottawa had a much better start to the middle frame and Vladimir Tarasenko potted his 17th goal of the year just past the four-minute mark.
Tyson Foerster was sent to the box with 8:31 to play, but the top penalty kill in the NHL held off the Senators’ power play with relative ease.
Ottawa did have a golden chance to take the lead off the stick of Chychrun in tight, but the puck rang off the corner of the post and crossbar and stayed out.
With just about six minutes left, Mathieu Joseph and Travis Sanheim were each handed slashing minors, though it didn’t seem like Sanheim did much of anything.
After cooler heads prevailed, Foerster then redeemed himself after his earlier penalty and put the Flyers ahead 2-1 with just 46.1 seconds remaining in the second period.
Then Foerster was impeded on a breakaway by Pinto and was awarded a penalty shot. The Alliston, Ontario native made no mistake and fooled Søgaard to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead with 1.5 seconds left.
The goal represented the fifth on a penalty shot for Philadelphia this season, a new single-season NHL record.
It was the Tyson Foerster show in period two as the Flyers took that two-goal advantage into the second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD
Just 4:10 into the period, Cam York high-sticked Chychrun and made him lose a tooth as he sent the Flyers to a four-minute penalty kill. Luckily, Sandström and company stayed resilient and after multiple big saves and blocks, York was out of the box without costing his team on the scoreboard.
The parade to the penalty box continued for the Flyers about two minutes after York’s infraction expired as Scott Laughton clipped former Flyers captain Claude Giroux with his stick. The Flyers killed another one off and then they had an abbreviated power play after rookie Maxence Guenette ran Garnet Hathaway in response to laying out Jacob Bernard-Docker.
Farabee was called for slashing Parker Kelly which cut the power play short, but the Senators were unable to capitalize at 4-on-4 or on their very short power play. However, right as the penalty expired and with an extra attacker out, Thomas Chabot cut the Flyers’ lead to one.
With Søgaard on the bench for a sixth skater again, Ottawa chipped away at Sandström and the Flyers but they held strong defensively. Philadelphia was able to breathe as York scored an empty-netter in the final second to seal the deal as the Flyers earned a much-needed two points in a 4-2 victory.
3 STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Tyson Foerster – PHI, 2) Nick Seeler – PHI, 3) Felix Sandström – PHI
UP NEXT
The Flyers take on the St. Louis Blues on Monday night (7:00pm, NBCSP) at Wells Fargo Center in Kevin Hayes’ return to Philadelphia.
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