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Wrap: Flyers Down Golden Knights, 6-2

October 21, 2019, 10:58 PM ET [141 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
WRAP: FLYERS DOWN GOLDEN KNIGHTS, 6-2

The Philadelphia Flyers ended a four-game winless skid in convincing fashion on Monday night as they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights, 6-2, at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers dominated the first period but only led 1-0 at intermission. The second-period was pretty wide open but the Flyers got some big saves and some self-made puck luck to score four unanswered goals. Vegas got back within two goals in the third before Philly restored a four-goal margin.

"We found a way to score 6 goals. We had a real solid goaltending performance. Our first period was real solid. We had some puck luck in the second. We found a way to score four and we got outstanding goaltending. In my mind that could have been our least effective period in the last eight, but we found a way to win that period 4-0. Sometimes it works out that way, but it’s an important win for our group. We got some good powerplay goals tonight, which gave us a bit of momentum. I really liked our goaltending," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.

The power play stepped up for the Flyers, with the second unit striking twice as the team went 2-for-5. Vegas cashed in a third-period 5-on-3 in going 1-for-5 on their power plays.

"I think you need two units that can go out there. PK works so hard and puts pressure. You can’t stay on the ice for 1:20 unless you have full control of the puck. When you’re seeing that pressure, it is the same thing as 5 on 5. When you’ve been out there for 35-40 seconds, normally it is time to make a change unless you have full control on the other end. Right now, tonight, Coots’ unit execution was better and that is why they played more," Vigneault said.

For Philadelphia, Travis Konecny (power play, 4th) scored in the first period. Kevin Hayes (2nd), Michael Raffl (2nd), Matt Niskanen (power play, 2nd) and Oskar Lindblom (4th) extended the lead to 5-0 by the second intermission. After Vegas shaved two goals off the deficit, Raffl scored (2nd of game, 3rd of the season) on a breakaway.

Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere (1st assist and point of the season), Scott Laughton, Jakub Voracek, Ivan Provorov, Mikhail Vorobyev, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Michael Raffl, Travis Sanheim and Chris Stewart also got onto the scoresheet. Each player had one assist.

Note: The first goal credited to Raffl may be changed by the NHL on Tuesday to be credited to Provorov. Raffl, who set up a screen on the play, said after the game that the puck never deflected off of him and the goal should belong to Provorov.

"When you lose it is hard to be happy with your game, but we were happy with our game. Tonight, they found a way in and we were patient and didn’t change our game, and that is something we talked about," said Flyers captain Claude Giroux.

Jonathan Marchessault (5-on-3 power play, 2nd) and Reilly Smith (7th) scored in the third period for Vegas.

Brian Elliott was strong in goal, earning the win for the Flyers. He stopped 33 of 35 shots. Backup netminder Oskar Dansk got the start for Vegas, and struggled. The Flyers got six past him on 37 shots.

"It was good. I didn’t get any shots the first ten minutes, which can make it hard to get into a groove, but you have to stay patient and stay ready and the guys gave me a really good chance to win with all of that run support. You just want to play big back there and not give anything unreasonable up," Elliott said.

Joel Farabee made his NHL debut in this game. He skated 18 shifts (14:35 TOI), with 11:31 primarily spent on a five-on-five line with Hayes and Scott Laughton plus 3:04 on PP1. He had three shots on goal and nearly scored in the third period off a pass at the doorstep that narrowly missed being a slam dunk goal. He was credited with one takeaway and charged with one giveaway.

"I think just going down there [to the AHL for four games], knowing the Phantoms have a really good team this year and a lot of good players, helped. It was definitely good to get confidence down there. And that definitely for sure helped me into tonight’s game," Farabee said.

The Flyers dominated most of the first period in terms of puck possession, shots (15 shots and 24 attempts to 7 shots and 8 attempts), quality of chances, faceoffs (10-for-17), and even hits (9 to 5). Elliott had to come up with a pair of tough saves in the opening 20, but most of the play belonged to Philly. The Golden Knights were surprisingly sloppy and sluggish; downright fortunate to go off to intermission trailing only by one goal. The final 6+ minutes of the period were played without a whistle minus one icing.

With the Flyers on their first power play, Gostisbehere generated a strong entry on the sequence that ended in the Flyers taking an early 1-0 lead. Lindblom's cross-ice pass intended for Gostisbehere went off a Vegas defender and right to Konecny. There was no luck involved in Konecny's ensuing snipe of a shot.

The floodgates burst open in the second period. A combination of several momentum saves by Elliott and the Flyers outworking the Golden Knights to create some self-made puck luck.

Good work led to good fortune on Hayes' semi-wraparound on the backhand from the side of the net and then Provorov's seeing-eye shot from the left side boards through a Michael Raffl screen after an initial show of patience and precise passing from Vorobyev to Provorov.

Over the rest of the rather loosely played period (on both sides), Vegas lost all semblance of discipline and gave into frustration.

The Flyers cashed in. Two additional Flyers goals followed in quick succession after Brayden McNabb took an awful boarding minor (he saw only Konecny's numbers the whole way). A tape-to-tape feed from Sean Couturier to Matt Niskanen produced a picturesque backdoor goal. Then, after Travis Sanheim triggered an odd-man rush, Lindblom and Raffl worked a go-and-go to perfection, with Lindblom finishing off Raffl's return pass.

With the Flyers having to kill a 5-on-3 penalty for 1:36, the first group of Flyers penalty killers -- Couturier, Niskanen and Provorov -- did outstanding work holding the Golden Knights at bay. Vegas scored on the second go-around, as Marchessault had a slam-dunk off a feed from Mark Stone.

The Flyers did a good job of responding to the goal but, eventually, a breakaway goal by Smith narrowed the gap to 5-2. Raffl responded with a breakaway tally of his own, getting Dansk to commit very early and sliding a backhander into the net.

The Flyers will hold an 11:15 a.m. practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the team will depart for a road game the next night in Chicago before returning home for a Saturday divisional game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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