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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (10-6-3) are nothing if not resilient. For the second time in less than one week, the team recovered from a multi-goal deficit to defeat the St. Louis Blues. On Thursday, the Flyers skated to an entertaining 3-2 overtime victory after trailing 2-0 in the first period.
Travis Sanheim (2nd goal of the season) scored the winning goal in sudden death. Previously, Rodrigo Abols (1st) and Tyson Foerster (5th) tallied regulation goals in the second and third periods. Travis Konecny picked up his 10th and 11th assists of the young season.
Dan Vladar got off to a rough start in the first period, allowing a stoppable early goal from distance. Thereafter, the Czech netminder settled in nicely and went to make numerous vital saves on the way to a 27-save victory. Justin Faulk scored even strength and power play goals for the Blues in the first period. Joel Hofer (25 saves) took the loss.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from Thursday night.
The Good
- The Flyers were able to roll their lines effectively for the most part. There were momentum swings and mini-runs for both sides but Philly generated a lot of scoring chances and spells with extended puck possession. Big improvement from Saturday’s game in Dallas.
- Emil Andrae, moved up to the second pair with Jamie Drysdale in the second period, had more ups than downs in his 19:30 of ice time. He jumped into plays intelligently and passed the puck very well. The only downsides:one bad turnover followed immediately by a tripping penalty. Meanwhile, Andrae made a tremendous set-up play to feed Foerster for the tying goal at 11:49 of the second period.
- The forechecking work of Konecny and Noah Cates triggered the sequence that ended in Foerster’s tying goal.
- Trevor Zegras played into some tough luck in the latter part of the game. He easily could have had a multi-point night. However, the crossbar and Hofer’s glove got the way. Earlier, he made two slick and elusive moves on the boards to start the Ablos goal sequence. Owen Tippett also made a quick centering pass to Abols at the net. In the third period, Zegras created a power play at a crucial juncture. Philly didn’t score but Zegras twice came within a whisker of a goal.
- Vladar had no margin for error after the Blues went ahead, 2-0. Fortunately, he proved up to the task.
- Abols had two prime scoring chances — one in the first period, another in the second. The third time proved to the charm. Later, in the third period, Abols one again had a prime scoring chance.. Strong performance.
The bad
- The overall process in the first period was actually not bad. However, the last thing the team needed was another multi-goal deficit to overcome. With six game in a 10-night span, Philly really didn’t want another game of clawing for a comeback.
- For the second straight game, the Flyers paid the price for a coverage mistake on a penalty kill. The Flyers lost the special teams battle (0-for-2 on the power play, 1-for-2 on the penalty kill).
- Matvei Michkov (14:56 TOI, one shot on goal) wasn’t bad but also wasn’t impactful. He had a couple “almost” plays.
- Jordan Kyrou shook loose from Noah Juulsen coverage and went one-on-one with Vladar. Fortunately for Philly, Vladar made a potential game-saving stop.
The Ugly
- it wasn’t his fault (the puck bounced and he had to hurry). Nevertheless, it was very frustrating when Konecny missed a gaping net with the game tied late in regulation. Plays like that, more often than not, come back to haunt a team. The Flyers couldn’t pull out a regulation win. However, they still got the two points.
- The Blues had continuous puck possession — and several regroups — for the first two-plus minutes of overtime. It took two strong Vladar saves on Brayden Schenn and a 10-bell stop on Kyrou to keep the game going.
- There were two questionable penalty non-calls (including a stick slash) and an iffy-at-best icing non-call in seemingly important moments. Fortunately, officiating proved to be a non–factor in the outcome.
Flyers Starting Lineup
Trevor Zegras- Christian Dvorak – Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers- Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]
Scratches: Nikita Grebenkin (healthy), Egor Zamula (healthy).
Note: Tocchet and Jeff Reirden switched two defense pairs after the first period: Andrae-Drysdale, Seeler-Juulsen
Tocchet’s Take: Postgame
