The Philadelphia Flyers earned their second consecutive overtime victory after defeating the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, thanks in large part to a third period comeback.
Egor Zamula’s point shot at the tail-end of their power play was deflected by Joel Farabee in front of the net for his 2nd tally of the night. After falling down 3-1 in the third period with 2 quick goals from the Wild, the Flyers bounced back in quick order with 2 goals of their own in less than 90 seconds from Tyson Foerster and Owen Tippett.
After Marcus Johansson opened the scoring in the second period, Farabee’s first goal of the night tied things up before the flood gates opened in the third.
Carter Hart made 26 stops for 11th win of the season, Marc-André Fleury was denied history tonight as he was one win away from taking sole possesion of 2nd place all-time in wins, and Travis Konecny added to his team-lead in points with 2 more assists as he now has 21 goals and 18 assists on the season. Jamie Drysdale also added an assist on the game-tying goal and he played 22:09, while being a plus-1.
After a shootout victory against the Montréal Canadiens in their last game – one in which the Flyers thoroughly dominated and hit the post 6 times – they ended their 4-game homestand going 2-1-1 as they embarked on a back-to-back road-fest with the Wild on Friday and the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday before concluding the trip in St. Louis on Monday.
Carter Hart earned the start after making way for Samuel Ersson on Wednesday but also considering it’s a back-to-back set, it’s not all too surprising that John Tortorella went with his 1A starter. Nicolas Deslauriers returned into the lineup after being made a healthy scratch, Bobby Brink made his way out and into the press box, and the Flyers stuck with 11/7 formation that could be a feature for the foreseeable future with Tortorella believing Jamie Drysdale can be a “rover”.
As for the Wild they entered the contest banged up and reeling with losses in 6 of their last 7. Kirill Kaprizov, Vinni Lettieri, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Filip Gustavsson were on the mend with IR placements, which has really stunted their offense of late as they have scored just 12 goals during that stretch.
Mats Zuccarello, who just recently returned from an IR stint paced the club in points – amongst those healthy – as he had 24 assists and 30 points in 31 games, Joel Eriksson Ek was right behind him with 15 goals and 27 points in 40 games, and Matthew Boldy – another recent IR-returnee – had 14 goals and 26 points in 33 games.
Marc-André Fleury was between the pipes looking to make NHL history by passing Patrick Roy for the 2nd most wins all-time. He entered tonight sporting a 7-9-2 record, a 3.12 G.A.A., and a .892 SV%. He had one victory over his last 5 starts, which was the all important win that tied him up with Patrick Roy.
FIRST PERIOD
5:51 into the game, Patrick Maroon was able to draw a tripping minor against Egor Zamula after a strong forechecking shift. The Wild spent nearly the full 2 minutes in the offensive zone with the exception of 4-5 seconds but Carter Hart stood tall and gobbled up all the shots fired his way. Matthew Boldy alone had 3 shots on goal and another 3 shots that missed the net.
As expected in facing his former club and coming back into the lineup, Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves with Maroon in a lengthy bout with the former taking down the latter with several heavy blows.
After firing 3 of the first 4 shots, the Wild took 9 of the next 10 before the Flyers picked up their pace near the end of the period, Both teams entered the intermission scoreless with the Wild holding an 11-10 shot advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
After a blueline gaffe from Cam York, the Wild transitioned from defense to offense in a flash and were able to bury the first goal of the game just 51 seconds into the second period. Marcus Johnasson curled and dragged in front of York before using him as a screen and then ripped a hard shot past Hart.
Sean Couturier and the Flyers jumped on a 3-on-1 but Wild defenseman Jon Merrill forced him to the outside, squandering the opportunity. Couturier made up for that gaffe in quick order with a ridiculous no-look bank pass to Travis Konecny who then fed a pass through the legs of the Merrill to Joel Farabee for the tap-in goal and his 13th of the year at the 3:37 mark.
At the 9:12 mark of the period, Ryan Hartman was called for a hooking minor against Cam Atkinson. The Flyers’ dead-last road power play – 3-for-56 – went head-to-head against the worst home penalty killing unit of the Wild. No dice for – currently – the worst road power play in NHL history as they looked as flat as ever.
Jamie Drysdale was whistled for a hooking minor with 4:44 remaining in the period. With 37 seconds remaining on Drysdale’s minor, the Wild were whistled for a too many men minor. Mats Zuccarello, who served the minor, came out of the box and was left all alone against Hart after the puck laid flat outside the trapezoid but Hart made the big stop to keep the score tied heading into the second intermission.
The Flyers held a 12-7 shot advantage in the period, giving them a 22-19 edge through 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
1:48 into the third, the Wild scored the go-ahead goal off the stick of former Flyer Ryan Hartman after he ripped a one-timer from a not-so-great angle that snuck past the pad of Hart – a goal he would really like to have back.
2:55 later Hartman patiently entered the zone before dropping a feed to Jacob Middleton, who then set up Matt Boldy for a blistering one-timer past a sprawling Hart to give the Wild a 2-goal lead.
With 10:29 remaining in regulation, Tyson Foerster busted through his lengthy goal drought after sniping one past Marc-André Fleury to cut the deficit in half. Scott Laughton assisted on the goal as he set up the one-timer for just his 5th point in his last 16 games, while Foerster snapped his 16-game goal drought.
1:25 later and with a delayed penalty coming against Minnesota, the Flyers must have decided that they didn’t want to hop on another power play as Owen Tippett sniped a hard shot past Fleury glove-side to tie the game with 9:04 left to play for his 15th of the season.
After a furious comeback to tie the game, the Flyers found themselves playing overtime hockey in back to back games and for the third time in 5 games.
OVERTIME
With 3:23 left in overtime, Atkinson was tripped up by Zuccarello to send the Flyers onto the power play. With a few seconds remaining on the man advantage, Zamula’s point shot was deflected by Farabee for the game-winner.
Just moments before the goal, Joel Eriksson Ek sprung himself onto a breakaway after a great stick check at the blueline but was well defended by Drysdale as he wasn’t able to get a shot off.
UP NEXT
The Flyers finish off the back-to-back set and embark on the second of the three road games on this trip against the Winnipeg Jets (7:00pm ET, NBCSP) on Saturday night.
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