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Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (14-7-3) finished off a tough four-game road trip with a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday evening. After starting the trip with a 3-0 shutout loss in Tampa, the Flyers trailed the Florida Panthers, 2-0, in the second game. Thereafter, Philly dug deep to win not only that game but the next two.
In the process, the Flyers sent the Devils to their first home regulation loss of the season. The Flyers are 2-0-0 against New Jersey so far in the four-game season series between the Metro Division clubs.
Saturday’s game was very eventful. The Flyers held leads of 1-0 and 4-1. The Devils, playing without injured Jack Hughes, refused to go away quietly. They drew within 4-3 in the third period and had a power play opportunity to forge a tie. Fortunately, the Flyers penalty kill stepped up.
Owen Tippett contributed two goals (even strength and empty net, 7th and 8th of the season) plus a nice assist on a Trevor Zegras goal (9th). The Flyers also received tallies from Matvei Michkov (7th) and Travis Konecny (6th). Meanwhile, Dan Vladar (29 saves) was once again outstanding in goal for the Flyers.
Here’s the good (lots to discuss), bad (just a few) and ugly aspects from Saturday’s clutch win. It’s just the second time since the start of the 2024-25 season that the Flyers won the second game of a back-to-back.
The good
- Diversified offense: four different goal scorers, seven players with at least one point, and four players with multi-point games.
- Vladar was nothing less than outstanding when he needed to be. He had a host of 10-bell saves among his 29 stops; timely ones, too.
- Matvei Michkov, not noted for his defense, made a huge backchecking play in the third period. The play was every bit as important as his early second-period goal that got Philly off and running in the middle frame.
- The penalty killers and Vladar stepped up when the Devils threatened on three of their four power plays on the night.
- Tippett notched his 100th career NHL goal and 200th point on the same play.
- Even when Philly players had a miscue, they bounced back on subsequent shifts.
- Especially for the final game of a 4-in-6 road trip, the Flyers played with really good pace.
- This was a game where the Flyers needed situational shot-blocking. The team came up with 25. Nick Seeler led with five.
- The Flyers fourth line had a really rough game on Friday. In this game, however, they contributed some high-quality shifts.
The bad
- It’s great that the Flyers have scored first and built multi-goal leads in each of the last two games. That checks an early season concern off the list, at least for now. However,coughing up (or nearly coughing up) said leads cannot become a habit, either. It’s happened twice and nearly happened again on Saturday. Yes, Philly won all three games. Nevertheless, part of learning how to win consistently and maintaining order.
- There are not many games where Noah Cates has a downright bad night. That happened on Saturday. Cates got stripped of a puck in a dangerous area of the ice. He went 4-for-16 on faceoffs. In the third period, Cates was unable to bury what would have been a valuable insurance goal. However, to his credit, he didn’t stop battling. Insteady, he found ways to help in other details. He had a clutch shot block. He registered a takeaway. Cates also logged 2:12 of penalty kill time. That’s what a pro does when some things don’t click. He finds other moments to step up.
- The Flyers easily could been down on a four-minute penalty kill in the third period with the lead down to one. Sean Couturier and the Flyers caught a huge break when the officials did not call his high stick on Luke Hughes.
- Vladar needed more help on the extended sequence that ended in Timo Meier’s second power play goal against Philly in as many games.
- Trevor Zegras turned over the puck to Dawson Mercer. Both Philly defensemen (Seeler and Egor Zamula got turned inside-out) on Mercer’s ensuing backhanded goal. The lead shrank to 4-3 with 13:32 left to play.
The ugly
- Cam York played a strong game overall. However, his retaliatory slashing penalty at 13:16 of the third period was an awful play. It was still a one-goal game. The team just got a reprieve on the missed Couturier high-stick. Moreover, it was an obvious opportunity for a make-up call.
- The Flyers also got lucky when Garnet Hathaway’s delay of game penalty did not come back to haunt them. Sometimes, Philly seems allergic to doing anything the easier way.
Flyers Starting Lineup
Trevor Zegras- Christian Dvorak – Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae – Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler – Egor Zamula
Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]
Scratches: Nicolas Deslauriers (healthy), Noah Juulsen (healthy).
Postgame media availability: Travis Konecny (1g, 1a)
Phantoms Drop Shootout to Laval
John Snowden’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms (11-6-1-2) settled for just one of four possible points this weekend. After a 4-1 loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, the Phantoms loss via shootout, 5-4 (1-0), to the Laval Rocket on home ice on Saturday.
The Phantoms trailed, 3-1, before Christian Kyrou (PPG, 4th) scored a buzzer-beating power play goal with 0.1 second left in the second period to narrow the gap to 3-2. In the third period, goals by Anthony Richard (7th) and Lane Pederson (7th) put the Phantoms ahead, 4-3. Unfortunately, Lehigh Valley couldn’t close out the game in regulation. Laval scored on a 6-on-5 in the final minute to force overtime.
Carl Grundstrom scored a first period goal for the Phantoms. Carson Bjarnason stopped 28 of 32 shots before going 1-for-2 in the shootout. The Phantoms were 1-for-4 on the power and just 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Lehigh Valley is winless so far this season against the two division leaders in the Eastern Conference: 0-3-0 against the Penguins (three straight 4-1 losses) and 0-1-1 against North Division leading Laval. They are 11-2-1-1 against everyone else so far.
The Phantoms have a three-in-three awaiting them next weekend: Friday (Dec. 5) in Wilkes-Barre, Saturday at home against Utica, and Sunday in Hershey.
