Two nights after coming away with just one point from a largely dominant performance against Calgary, the Flyers put forth a similar effort over the final 40 minutes of regulation on Monday night against the Vancouver Canucks. This tine, the Flyers got just enough to skate off with a 2-1 win in regulation.
The victory lifted the Flyers to 12-7-5 overall, and 7-1-4 at home. They finished 1-0-1 in the two-game season series with the Canucks.
The first period was a rather tight-checking frame, but the Canucks turned a Flyers turnover into a goal that they took to intermission as a 1-0 lead. The final 40 minutes were all Flyers. ' Sean Couturier (7th goal, 11th assist) and Jakub Voracek (6th goal, 10th assist) led the offensive attack on a night where multiple lines generated quality scoring chances and heaps of offensive zone possession. Justin Braun assisted on the game winner. J.T. Miller (10th) notched the lone Vancouver goal halfway through the opening period.
"For tonight’s game, the whole game, he played the right way," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said of Voracek.
"When it was time to defend he defended. When it was time for him to use his size and his skill on one-on-one battles, he did. He created room and opportunities for himself and his two linemates. This was probably one of his most effective game since the start."
Voracek said that the opportunity to recently be reunited on a line with Couturier has been a huge boost to his game.
"He’s helping everyone, he’s always in the right positions him and Oskar [Lindblom]. They are both really easy to read off of and I think for me to keep a little bit of a speed to keep going, so I don’t have to start and stop all the time which is really hard to do for an 82 game season. I am moving a little bit better I feel like a swagger back. If I don’t play with a swagger I think that’s what I was missing. I got the swagger back kind of that ‘[screw] you’ attitude I need too to be successful," Voracek said.
Voracek was one of four Flyers to record four shots on goal. The others were Braun, Morgan Frost, and Travis Sanheim. On the defensive side of the puck, Matt Niskanen two hits and led the team with four blocked shots. He also had three shots on goal on seven total attempts.
Carter Hart went long stretches without seeing any meaningful pucks but stepped up when he needed to in stopping 16 of 17 shots. Thatcher Demko kept the Canucks in the game with a chance to win despite the possession disparity, but ended up with a hard-luck loss in stopping 32 of 34 shots.
"We played hard the whole game and we got the lead. I don’t think anything should change. We should just keep playing our game, I don’t think it’s time to go into defensive mode it’s just time to keep playing our game and because we played a really solid game tonight for the whole game. We didn’t give much of anything at all," Hart said.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Philly owned the faceoff dot the tune of 62 percent (32-for-52) including a 9-for-11 performance by Michael Raffl.
In the first period, there were not a lot of quality chances for either team despite a combined 17 shots on goal (9 for Vancouver, 8 for the Flyers). The Canucks turned a rough shift for Michael Raffl -- turnovers in the offensive and defensive zones -- into a Horvat goal from outside the hash marks in the lower left circle at 10:34.
From the get-go, the Couturier line was Philly's most effective in driving play and generating possession in the Vancouver zone. The line centered by Morgan Frost (14:46 TOI, four shots on goal in four attempts) with Claude Giroux (17:30 TOI, three shots on goal on six attempts) and Travis Konecny (one blocked shot attempt) also buzzed at various junctures. For the third straight game, the Flyers worked a set play between Giroux and Frost off a left circle offensive zone draw. Later, Frost made a nice forechecking play in the neutral zone to help create the game's first power play (Philly was unable to get organized). Later, he set up what became a scoring chance for Ivan Provorov.
The Flyers took over the second period, outshooting the Canucks by a 17-4 margin with a slew of Philadelphia scoring chances. Again, the Couturier and Frost lines buzzed repeatedly in Vancouver zone. The Flyers, however, one goal to show it; Couturier's 7th of the season.
At 5:54 of the middle frame, Couturier (20:42 TOI, four shot attempts) stayed with the puck in a scramble near the Vancouver net and potted a goal to tie the game. Voracek (15:28 TOI, four shots on goal) and Robert Hà¤gg (2nd assist) got the helpers.
Philly generated a 9-4 shot edge in the third period, as all four lines but especially the top two swarmed the puck and kept the Canucks hemmed in. A strong penalty kill by the Flyers with the game still tied at 1-1 was a momentum generator.
They finally got rewarded with Voracek's go-ahead goal at 11:27 as Couturier won a puck battle, Braun pinched with the puck around behind the net and fed to Voracek just outside the hash marks. His quick shot went off the right post and in the net for a 2-1 lead.
The Flyers played smothering defense in protecting the lead. Finally, Hart made a vital late-game save on Josh Leivo and Couturier made one final defensive stop to help seal the win for the Flyers.
Philly will hold practice at the Skate Zone on Tuesday and then embark on a three-in-four stretch of game that will see them play in Columbus on Tuesday, return home to host Detroit in the annual Black Friday game at the Wells Fargo Center (4:00 p.m. ET this year) and then got another plane to visit the Montreal Canadiens in a Saturday mid-afternoon (3:00 p.m. ET) tilt.