Wrap: Flyers Take Down Sabres, 5-2
Coming off an an emotional rollercoaster in recent days and facing an important home game against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers needed to get off to a strong start and avoid a letdown. Buffalo, playing the second game of a road back-to-back and for the third time in four nights, looked out of sorts early. The Flyers took full advantage, building a quick 2-0 lead and playing from ahead the rest of the night on the way to a convincing 5-2 victory.
After the Flyers' great start, the Sabres had some spurts during the game where they took the play to the Flyers. Both teams had some errors they'll need to clean up to win consistently down the stretch drive. Overall, though, Philly clearly outplayed Buffalo and was the deserved winner of this game.
With the win, the Flyers (30-26-7) moved one point ahead of the Sabres (29-26-8) in the Eastern Conference standings. The Flyers remain eight points (seven standings points plus a 32-28 ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference as well as eight points behind the Carolina Hurricanes (seven standings points plus a 33-28 ROW disadvantage) for third place in the Metro Division. With Columbus losing in regulation to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to fall below the playoff cutoff line, the Flyers are six points plus a 35-28 ROW disadvantage behind the Blue Jackets heading into a head-to-head clash in Columbus on Thursday.
Against the Sabres, Oskar Lindblom (12th goal of the season, 8th in his last 17 games) not only opened the scoring early in the first period but played an especially tenacious game on the forecheck en route to racking up five shots on goal and taking first-star honors. The Flyers also got goals from Jakub Voracek (17th), James van Riemsdyk (17th), Travis Sanheim (6th) and Claude Giroux (empty net, 19th).
"Especially this time of the year, gonna be some greasy goals. Gonna have to score those goals if we want to win games. It’s an important part of the game. I like to be there so, why not?" Lindblom said.
Travis Konecny (20th assist), Nolan Patrick (13th), Giroux (46th), Phil Myers (1st NHL assist and point), Robert Hà¤gg (11th), Radko Gudas (12th), Sean Couturier (34th) and Michael Raffl (9th) each collected one helper.
Brian Elliott earned the win in net, stopping 34 of 36 shots on goal. He made 29 saves on 30 shots over the final 40 minutes. Not all the stops were textbook, but they were clutch and kept the puck out of the net.
"At times they were coming pretty well and they had a lot of zone time on us. We didn’t give up too many opportunities, but I felt like we had some tired bodies and legs when we couldn’t get it out and I think that’s when the brain shuts off and you start making some dumb plays. We managed to bend and not break on a lot of those," Elliott said.
Ryan Hartman had an impressive Flyers debut, especially his first shift as he landed a crunching and clean open ice hit on Sabres standout rookie defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, grappled with the huge Zack Bogosian and drew a power play for Philly (as well as an ovation for himself from the Wells Fargo Center crowd). Ultimately, Hartman logged 14:12 of ice time and was credited with four hits and four shots on goal in five shot attempts.
"It kind of put me into the game a little bit and it got me ready. Anytime you can get your adrenaline going a little a bit, it always helps when you might have a little nerves," Hartman said of his first shift. "It sounded like [the fans] loved it. I plan on bringing a lot more of that."
The Flyers dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards for the game. Rookie defenseman Myers once again had a strong game, and was rewarded with 15:24 of ice time on 18 shifts to veteran Andrew MacDonald's 8:55 (2:21 on the PK) on 10 shifts. Corban Knight (9:41, three shots) was in the starting lineup while Phil Varone was scratched.
"I felt once Phil got into the lineup that he was going to show that he belonged.... Having the experience of coaching some of these guys down there [in the AHL], you can tell when all of a sudden, the game gets easy for them in the American League, and that’s kind of where Phil was," Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon said.
"When you get into those situations where the players are starting to dominate the level of the game that they play, now it just comes a matter of them being able to adjust to the speed and the strength of the players up here and you can only do that by being here. So, an important part of Phil’s development was him being here and practicing. Whether it was, I don’t even remember, seven days, ten days, and then just getting eight minutes in his first game. I think that’s part of the process. He’s stepped in and his last three games, he’s played really well."
Jack Eichel (power play, 22nd) and Casey Mittelstadt (9th) scored for the Sabres. Jeff Skinner (21st assist), Rasmus Dahlin (29th), Evan Rodrigues (15th) and Conor Sheary (17th) collected one helper apiece. Carter Hutton took the loss in goal, stopping 40 of 44 shots.
The Flyers, who did not have to kill a penalty in either of their two previous games, went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. They were 0-for-2 on the power play. Additionally, Flyers were 32-for-53 on draws (60.4 pct). Couturier went 13-for-23 (56.5 pct) and Knight was 4-for-4.
Lindblom opened the scoring at 2:48 of the first period, chipping a puck up and under Hutton's arm from the right side of the net. Voracek made it 2-0 at 7:52 of the first period as he scored on a second-change rebound. On their first power play, Buffalo narrowed the gap to 2-1 after a failed clearing opportunity for the Flyers and a five-hole goal with a quick shot release from the left circle by Eichel at 12:08. First period shots were 19-6 in Philly's favor.
Buffalo found its skating legs in the second period but, after some nervous early minutes, the Flyers extended their lead to 3-1 in the latter stages of the period. JVR redirected home a Hà¤gg point shot at 15:13. The Sabres cut the gap down to 3-2 at 17:53 as Shayne Gostisbehere got beaten near the blueline on a transitional rush and Myers came over to help. With the middle of the ice open, Mittelstadt showed off good hands to accept a pass from Rodrigues and score from point blank range with a nice finish. Second period shots were 16-11 in Buffalo's favor (30-22 overall in Philly's favor).
The Flyers quickly restored a two-goal margin in the third period. Sanheim jumped into an odd-man rush, took a tape-to-tape pass from Couturier and scored from the slot at the 46-second mark. Philly bent but didn't break as the period moved along. Finally, at 17:05, Giroux scored an empty netter to nail down a three-goal margin of victory. Third period shots were 15-14 in Philly's favor (45-36 in the Flyers' favor overall).
The Flyers will hold practice on Wednesday at the Skate Zone before traveling to Columbus for Thursday's tilt and then to Newark to play the New Jersey Devils on Friday.