The Philadelphia Flyers got the 2018-19 regular season off to a strong start with a 5-2 road win over the defending Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. A three-goal Flyers outburst in the second period put a stranglehold on the game for Philadelphia. The Flyers took a 2-1 lead to the first intermission, overcoming a slow start and early 1-0 deficit.
Oskar Lindblom, Wayne Simmonds (even strength and power play goals), Robert Hà¤gg (one goal, one assist for his first multi-point game in the NHL) and Scott Laughton scored for the Flyers. Jakub Voracek had a pair of assists, while Mikhail Vorobyev recorded his first career NHL point with a secondary assist on the Hà¤gg goal.
Claude Giroux's secondary assist on the Simmonds' power play goal -- the first pass of a tic-tac-toe sequence from Giroux to Voracek to the goal scorer -- gave him 464 for his career. He passed Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Barber for sole possession of third place on the Flyers' all-time assist list. Next up: The Flyers captain needs 16 assists to tie Brian Propp (480) for second.
Building off his strong preseason finale, Brian Elliott was very strong in net for the Flyers in the opener, coming up with numerous momentum saves. He finished with 23 saves on 25 shots.
Jonathan Marchessault opened the scoring in the first period. Ex-Flyers center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored shorthanded in the third period.
Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss for Vegas. He was pulled after the fifth Flyers goal with 11 saves on 16 shots. Malcolm Subban went the rest of the way, and was not tested all that often on nine shots.
The Flyers went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. A first-period kill on a James van Riemsdyk tripping penalty was an early stabilizer for Philly. Leading 5-1 in the third period, the Flyers successfully killed off a 5-on-3 penalty.
Philly went 1-for-4 on the power play. Apart from the man advantage that led up to the Simmonds' goal, the Flyers did not do much with their power plays. The Flyers got burned for the Bellemare shorthanded goal -- Philly yielded 10 shorties last year -- but closed out the game efficiently thereafter.
The Flyers' two-game road trip to open the season will take them to Denver next to play the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.