Game 30 Preview: Flyers vs. Red Wings
The Philadelphia Flyers (16-10-3) will host the Detroit Red Wings (15-10-4) on Saturday evening. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The Flyers are 5-0-2 over their last seven games. They enter this game coming off a 4-3 (2-1) home shootout victory against the Washington Capitals on Thursday. Bobby Brink (5th), Joel Farabee (11th) and Owen Tippett (10th). Sean Couturier and Brink scored in the shootout. Morgan Frost had two assists. Samuel Ersson (30 saves on 33 shots) earned the win in goal.
The Red Wings enter this game coming off a 2-1 home loss on Thursday to the Carolina Hurricanes. Michael Rassmussen (7th) scored the lone goal for Detroit, while Ville Husso turned back 37 of 39 shots in a losing cause. Detroit is winless in its last four games (0-3-1).
One interesting angle for Saturday night's game is that will pit the Flyers red-hot PK (45 for its last 48) against Detroit's 22.3 percent power play. It's also notable that Detroit has yielded five opposing shorthanded goals while the Flyers have scored seven shorthanders: a potential opportunity to generate a goal off a counterattack.
Carter Hart remains out of the Flyers' lineup due to illness but it's possible that he could feel up to being the backup in this game. Samuel Ersson will start for the third consecutive game. Unless Hart is feeling well enough to back up, Felix Sandström will be recalled again from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on an emergency basis to back up Ersson. Sean Couturier took a maintenance day on Friday and did not participate in Saturday's lightly attended (11 players) morning skate but is expected to play in the game.
For Detroit, team captain Dylan Larkin remains on IR while J.T. Compher is expected to play his first game since December 5. David Perron will serve the fourth game of a six-game NHL suspension for cross-checking Ottawa's Artem Zub to the head.
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 89 Cam Atkinson 74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink 44 Nic Deslauriers - 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen 24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker 5 Egor Zamula - 18 Marc Staal
33 Samuel Ersson [79 Carter Hart]
RED WINGS
27 Michael Russmussen - 37 J.T. Compher - 88 Patrick Kane 93 Alex DeBrincat - 90 Joe Veleno - 23 Lucas Raymond 14 Robby Fabbri - 18 Andrew Copp - 17 Daniel Sprong 24 Klim Kostin - 21 Austin Czarnik - 36 Christian Fischer
96 Jake Walman - 53 Moritz Seider 8 Ben Chiarot - 46 Jeff Petry 41 Shayne Gostisbehere - 2 Olli Mà¤à¤ttà¤
34 Alex Lyon [35 Ville Husso]
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Lehigh Valley Update: Phantoms Lose to Laval, Host Springfield
Coming off back-to-back home wins over the Charlotte Checkers, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms were unable to close out a home game on Friday against the struggling Laval Rocket (7-12-5), and fell to an extremely frustrating 4-3 regulation loss.
The Phantoms, who led 2-0 at the midpoint of regulation and 3-2 heading into the third period, outshot Laval by a 45-24 margin for the game and 16-4 in the third period, yet the Rocket scored twice in the final stanza to tie and then win the game. Jan Mysak (4th goal of season) knotted the game at 3-3 at the 7:14 mark of the third period. Later, with Ronnie Attard in the penalty box for a tripping minor, Riley Kidney (6th) scored a power play goal with 1:07 remaining in regulation for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
On the bright side for the Phantoms, for the second straight game, Samu Tuomaala (PPG, 7th) and Emil Andrae (PPG, 3rd) notched a goal and assist apiece. Coming off a three-assist night in Wednesday's 3-2 overtime win against Charlotte, Cooper Marody assisted on both the Tuomaala and Andrae goals for his fourth and fifth helpers in the last two games. Andrae and Tuomaala picked up the other assists on each other's goals.
On Wednesday, Tuomaala blasted home a one-timer on the power play against Charlotte. He did it again on Friday with an arguably even more scorching snipe from nearly the same spot on the ice. With his two-point game, Tuomaala is now third in rookie scoring leaguewide with 22 points in 25 games. Veteran forward Marody is tied for 7th in the AHL with his 17 assists to date.
The other Phantoms goal, scored just 13 seconds into the middle stanza, was tallied by Wade Allison (5th), whose game has picked up considerably after he got off to a very rough start the first few weeks of the regular season. Allison top-shelved a shot off the rush for his most impressive goal scored thus far in the 2023-24 season.
The Allison goal temporarily forged a 2-0 lead before a Brendan Gignac (8th) shorthanded goal and Lucas Condotta (4th) even strength goal spaced just 1:06 apart in the middle of the second period tied the score at 2-2. Andrae's power play goal put the Phantoms ahead, 3-2, heading into the third period.
The serially inconsistent Cal Petersen absorbed the loss. He made 20 saves on 24 shots. For the season, Petersen is 4-6-1 with a 3.20 goals against average and .898 save percentage. Laval's Jakub Dobes largely helped steal a win for the Rocket with 42 saves on 45 shots.
The Phantoms were 2-for-6 on the power play but coughed up the Gignac shorthanded that gave life to Laval in the second period. The Rocket went 1-for-4 on the power play.
No sooner did Tanner Laczynski return from a nagging injury to the Phantoms' lineup on Wednesday than he was out again on Friday. Helge Grans (surgery to repair a broken hand) is out for an extended period of time. Friday's lineup is below.
On Saturday, the Phantoms (11-10-4) will play a divisional game as they host the Springfield Thunderbirds (13-8-2) at the PPL Center. Game time is 7:05 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on AHLTV (subscription required). To date this season, the Phantoms are 2-2-0 against the Thunderbirds. Lehigh Valley won the first two meets, and Springfield prevailed in each of the last two.
Phantoms lineup on Friday:
17 Garrett Wilson - 22 Rhett Gardner - 19 Wade Allison 16 J.R. Avon - 24 Adam Brooks - 27 Samu Tuomaala 29 Alexis Gendron - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 20 Cooper Marody 15 Jordy Bellerive - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 14 Zayde Wisdom
6 Emil Andrae - 7 Louie Belpedio 98 Victor Mete - 12 Ronnie Attard 37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
40 Cal Petersen [32 Felix Sandström]