Flyers Beat Avs in Denver, 5-2
The Philadelphia Flyers skated to an impressive 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday night. Philly went into one of the toughest buildings in the NHL -- a venue where the Cup-contending Avalanche sported a 9-3-0 record entering Saturday's game -- and pushed back every time the Avs had a run of momentum. The Flyers never trailed at any point in the game.
Up and down the Flyers' lineup, from the veteran nucleus to rookie Tyson Foerster and the under-25 forwards who seemed poised for another jump this year but have been inconsistent during the first one-third of 2023-24, Philly received step-up performances on Saturday. Carter Hart cranked out another strong game in net (37 saves on 39 shots). The team in front of him blocked 23 shots. Philly went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill to go 40 for their last 42 on the kill.
Don't let the final score fool you. The Flyers needed every bit of the teamwide effort they received against Colorado. There were times when the ice seemed tilted, only for the Flyers to take a deep breath and answer back after regaining their equilibrium. There was grit. There were high-skill plays made by players on both sides.
In short, it was one hell of an action-packed hockey game, and the Flyers were the ones who ultimately pulled away with a multi-goal victory.
Last December, the Flyers pulled off an upset win in Philadelphia over Colorado (which lost superstar Nate MacKinnon to a first-period injury in that game). A couple weeks later, Philly gave the Avs a real tough game in Denver but lost the match, 3-2. So, it wasn't like Philly got steamrolled by Colorado even last year, but last night's game felt different.
It felt different because the Flyers, who have now win four games in a row and improved to 15-10-2 on the season, are much improved. So the game itself was more meaningful. Secondly, Saturday's game was the type in which the Flyers simply didn't -- couldn't, in fact -- win very many of in recent history. The Avs were hungry for a win, and the Flyers had to weather the storm several times during the game.
Offensively, the Flyers got two more goals from Travis Konecny (15th and 16th), who has tallied four times so far on the current road trip. The penalty shot goal, which built a 4-2 lead and short-circuited a third-period push from Colorado, finally established a firmer grip on the game for Philly. The Flyers also received tallies from Owen Tippett (9th), Travis Sanheim (3rd) and Joel Farabee (10th).
Bobby Brink, who also made several clever plays two nights earlier in Arizona without getting a reward on the scoresheet, had nice assists on the Tippett and Farabee goals. He also turned in vital forechecking work in the sequence that led up to Morgan Frost feeding an open Sanheim in the right circle for the goal that made it 3-1 Flyers. Frost and Tippett earned the assists on the Sanheim goal, but the tally wouldn't have happened if not for Brink.
Frost, meanwhile, had perhaps his best offensive game of 2023-24 although he only came away from the night with the one assist. It's possible that an assist could be added on the Tippett goal as Frost checked the puck off Miles Wood's stick to Brink (the official scorer ruled no touch, no takeaway and no giveaway but Wood clearly had the first possession after Hart made a save and, a moment later, the puck was claimed by Brink). Frost also made the outlet pass to Sanheim that started the eventual Farabee goal sequence. Frost had a near-goal himself after he turned Ross Colton inside out on a rush and couldn't quite finesse a shot through the five hole. The puck wound up under goalie Ivan Prosvetov's legs after squeaking through the pads.
Sean Couturier (three shots on goal, three blocked shots, three takeaways) logged a monstrous 22:14 of ice time and won 14 of 25 faceoffs. Scott Laughton (three shots on goal, 14-for-24 on faceoffs) skated 22:09 over 32 shifts. There were stretches of the game where Tortorella was sending out Couturier and Laughton on every other shift for several minutes before eventually getting Frost (23 shifts, 15:54 TOI) out for his next shift.
The Flyers started the game with 11 forwards and seven defensemen but veteran defenseman Marc Staal was used very sparingly (8:30 TOI, 12 shots). For two periods, the Flyers largely went with just nine forwards, as fourth line wingers Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers were spotted carefully. Deslauriers had three shifts in the second period, of which one lasted 25 seconds. Hathaway had five shifts in the middle frame but two were short shifts.
In the third period, though, both players received frequent shifts in order to spread around the time. Hathaway (10:08 TOI, one hit, one shot on goal) set up a chance at the doorstep for a wide-open Deslauriers (10:24 TOI, two shots on goal, three hits, two takeaways, one blocked shot). In total, Hathaway and Deslauriers had seven shifts in the final period. Philly have leads of 4-2 and 5-2 enabled John Tortorella to expand the bench a bit more in the latter half of the final stanza.
On the blueline, the Flyers leaned heavily on the top three of Sanheim (22:48 TOI, 32 shifts), Cam York (21:03, 31 shifts) and Sean Walker (19:29, 27 shifts). Nick Seeler (one key block, two takeaways, 1:37 of PK ice time) skated 26 shifts and 16:21 overall. Rasmus Ristolainen (17:56, three hits, three blocks, 26 shifts) had ups and downs on what was a tough night for him. Egor Zamula (12:42 TOI) and Staal were spotted carefully by Tortorella and assistant coach Brad Shaw.
Sanheim in particular had one of his all-around games of the last few weeks. He jumped into the play decisively and effectively, even apart from his two-point (1g, 1a) showing on the scoresheet.
Saturday's game wasn't really one where most of the analytics were going to paint a very accurate picture of the actual game play. The Avs really didn't generate a lot of from the prime real estate on the ice and they're a team against whom the Flyers had little choice at times to focus on keeping as much as possible to the outside.
The most meaningful of these final team stats was the high-danger chances: While shots on goal, shot attempts and scoring chances (39-29) favored Colorado, the Flyers ever-so-slightly outpaced Colorado in the high-danger variety of scoring chances (14-13). Philly was ultimately the more opportunistic team offensively and got the better goaltending. Those things meant more than Corsi shares.
For much more on Saturday's game -- period-by-period recaps, stats, analysis and highlights -- see the Postgame 5 on the Flyers' official website.
The Flyers will now start coming back toward the east. They'll change time zone again, this time from Mountain to Central, as they head to Nashville to prepare for the final game of the current three-game road trip. On Monday, the Flyers will practice at Bridgestone Arena. The next night, the team will take on the Nashville Predators (14-13-0 but 7-3-0 in their last 10 matches) in an 8:00 p.m. ET game.
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Phantoms Bounce Back vs. Charlotte
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (10-9-4) ended a four-game winless stretch (0-3-1) with a solid 4-1 victory over the Charlotte Checkers (11-10-1) at the PPL Center for Teddy Bear Toss night on Saturday. The goal that triggered the deluge of stuffed animals -- all of which are donated to Valley Youth House in Bethlehem -- was scored by power forward Zayde Wisdom (1st goal of the season) at 6:36 of the first period.
The Phantoms also got tallies from Wade Allison (PPG, 4th), checking forward Jordy Bellerive (2nd, set up by rookies JR Avon and Samu Tuomaala) and second-year center Elliot Desnoyers (ENG, 4th). On the Desnoyers empty netter, Cooper Marody (12th assist of the season) unselfishly shuffled the puck over to Desnoyers to allow him to move in for a tap-in into the unguarded cage.
The Phantoms received a very strong goaltending performance from veteran Cal Petersen (36 saves on 37 shots). Petersen carried a shutout for 55-plus minutes until Jake Wise (5th) notched the lone goal for the Checkers but was excellent overall. Petersen (3-5-1, 3.11 GAA, .903 save percentage) is maddeningly inconsistent at times but when he's on, he can be outstanding.
Lehigh Valley was coming off a very disappointing performance in a 2-0 home loss to Providence on Friday. Even with the roster depleted by injuries and the NHL recall of Olle Lycksell, the first 40 minutes in particular in Friday's game -- the Phantoms were held to a combined eight shots and did not have a single high-grade scoring chance -- was unacceptably feeble. But they were better in the third period and built on it over Saturday's game against Charlotte. Saturday's game also featured a lengthy fight between two unlikely combatants: Phantoms rookie winger Tuomaala and Charlotte forward Riley Bezeau at 5:58 of the third period.
The Phantoms remained depleted on Saturday. Leading scorer Lycksell, who skated six shifts on Thursday in Arizona and was scratched in Colorado in favor going with seven defensemen, will remain with the Flyers through the rest of the trip. Top-line center Tanner Laczynski attempted last week to play through a nagging injury but sat out both games this weekend. The Phantoms, who lost puck-moving defenseman Victor Mete and winger Evan Polei to injuries in Friday's game, were also still missing two-way center Rhett Gardner, veteran forward Adam Brooks and young defensemen Helge Grans.
As a result, the Phantoms lineup had a couple of callups from the ECHL's Reading Royals. Still, they found a way to win. The Phantoms and Checkers will rematch at the PPL Center on Wednesday evening.
Phantoms starting lineup on Saturday:
17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 20 Cooper Marody 46 Matthew Brown - 13 Brendan Furry - 19 Wade Allison 15 Jordy Bellerive - 16 JR Avon - 27 Samu Tuomaala 29 Alexis Gendron - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 14 Zayde Wisdom
6 Emil Andrae - 3 Adam Karashik 37 Adam Ginning - 12 Ronnie Attard 8 Mason Millman - 5 Ethan Samson
40 Cal Petersen [32 Felix Sandström]