For the first time this season, the Philadelphia Flyers have won back-to-back games. On Thursday night, the Flyers skated to a 5-2 win over the LA Kings at the Staples Center. A good start, three successive first period penalty kills (including a 5-on-3), and show resiliency when they faced some adversity in the second period.
Ivan Provorov (2nd, goals in back-to-back games), Wayne Simmonds (7th), Oskar Lindblom (3rd goal, primary assists in back-to-back games), Claude Giroux (4th) and Robert Hà¤gg (empty net, 3rd) scored for the Flyers. Sean Couturier finally earned his first assist of the season.
Brian Elliott earned the win in goal, stopping 25 of 27 shots, and also got credited with an assist on Hà¤gg's long-distance empty net goal from behind his own net. Ellliott came up with several crucial saves in timely situations.
Jeff Carter (power play, 3rd goal, one assist) and Ilya Kovalchuk (4th goal, one assist) had multi-point games for LA in a losing cause. Jack Campbell denied 26 of 30 shots.
The Flyers went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-1 on the power play.
Provorov got the Flyers on the board first at 17:35 of the first period. On the play, Dale Weise fanned on a right circle shot attempt on the rush. He then found Provorov joining the attack on the other side as a trailer and Provorov took the pass and scored.
On LA's fourth power play opportunity, ex-Flyer Carter found room and deposited a backhander in the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1 at 10:04 of the second period. The Flyers responded immediately. At 10:53, Lindblom made a centering from the behind the net to Simmonds skating down the right slot. Ex-King Simmonds buried his shot to restore the lead at 2-1.
At 14:05, the Flyers benefited from some self-made good luck. Jakub Voracek did strong work along the end board and came out in front. Parked by the net, Lindblom could not get his stick on the puck so he kicked toward the net. The goal would have disallowed but defenseman Sean Walker's stick touched the puck before it went in the net. The goal stood and the Flyers had a 3-1 lead.
The Flyers finished the second period poorly, and ultimately paid the price. Kovalchuk was open to stash home a rebound at 18:41 to cut the gap to 3-2.
In the third period, the Flyers to kill another penalty and survive a few pushes where LA had them hemmed in deep. Eventually, they had three successive breakaway counters. The first was by Travis Konecny at the end of a shift. The second was by Voracek, who got stoned by Campbell. On the final one, Couturier made a good defensive play at the blueline and passed ahead to Giroux. The Flyers captain finished it off for a big insurance goal. Hà¤gg supplemented it with an empty-netter.
The three-game California portion of the Flyers' four-game western road trip will end on Saturday, when Philly takes on the San Jose Sharks. On Monday, the trip concludes in Glendale against the Arizona Coyotes.