Wrap: Flyers Pull Away, Down Detroit 6-1
n their annual Black Friday matinee at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers earned a 6-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. The Flyers improved to 14-7-5 overall, 4-0-1 in their last five games with points in 10 of the last 12 (7-2-3). Overall, the Flyers are 7-1-4 on home ice this season.
The Red Wings arguably outplayed the Flyers in the opening 40 minutes but had nothing but a two-goal deficit to show for it. Disheartened, they wound up getting blown out. Detroit saw its losing streak extend to eight games (0-6-2) with the last six losses coming in regulation.
Scott Laughton (2nd) Shayne Gostisbehere (power play, 2nd), Sean Couturier (8th), Kevin Hayes (7th), Oskar Lindblom (10th) and James van Riemsdyk (5th) scored for the Flyers. Jakub Voracek collected three assists (11th, 12th and 13th). Robby Fabbri (5th) tallied the lone goal for Detroit.
Carter Hart earned the win in goal, and was the Flyers' best player in the first and second periods before the score got lopsided. He stopped 32 of 33 shots overall, including all 17 he faced in the second period. Calvin Pickard absorbed the loss. He denied of 29 of 35 Flyers shots.
The Flyers went 1-for-3 on the power play, and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The first period wasn't an inspired one for the Flyers, but they nevertheless managed to take a 2-1 lead to intermission. Philly spent too much time defending and needed Carter Hart to make multiple tough saves. The Flyers also temporarily lost key defenseman Matt Niskanen to injury after he took a puck off his face. He returned for the second period wearing a full face cage with gauze stuffed up both bleeding nostrils.
Before leaving the game, Niskanen made a perfect lead pass to Scott Laughton on the game's first goal. Laughton broke through over the middle and beat ex-Flyer Cal Pickard through the five-hole. Shayne Gostisbehere's late first-period power play goal was a backhander that bounced in off defender Filip Hronek near the net.
The Red Wings again generated considerable time in the Flyers' end of the ice in the middle frame but the period's only goal belonged to the Flyers at the tail end of the period for a 3-1 lead.
On the front end of the rush, Ivan Provorov and Jakub Voracek navigated the puck up the ice. On the back end, Niskanen beautifully threaded the needle for Sean Couturier, leaving him one-on-one with Pickard. The goalie made an initial stop but Couturier stuffed home the rebound. Earlier in the frame, the Flyers had their own share of scoring chances, including two on the power play for the snakebitten James van Riemsdyk and one for Morgan Frost directly off the now-familiar set play with Claude Giroux off an offensive zone left circle draw.
The floodgates opened in the third period as the Flyers pulled away with authority. The rout was on after closely-spaced goals by Hayes (tip-in off a broken play) and Lindblom (getting rewarded for going to the net). JVR broke his 10-game goal drought with a late tap-in from the doorstep created by the relentless work of Tyler Pitlick.
The Flyers are right back in action on Saturday. They will be in Montreal to take on a more rested Canadiens team in a 3:00 p.m. ET match. The game will complete Philly gauntlet of 16 games in 30 days and three-in-four to end the month.