GAME 68: FLYERS vs. SABRES
Winners of eight straight games, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (40-20-7 overall, 24-5-3 home) host Ralph Krueger's Buffalo Sabres (29-30-8 overall, 10-19-4 away) on Saturday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on the
Flyers Radio 24/7 component of the Flyers Broadcast Network.
This is second of three meetings this season between the teams, and the second and final game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 1-0-0 against the Sabres this season. The season series will conclude in Buffalo on April 4; the final day of the 2019-20 regular season.
On Dec. 19, Jack Eichel was a late scratch from the Buffalo lineup, which forced his 17-game point streak to end under NHL rules. The Flyers proceded to pummel the Sabres, 6-1.
Mikhail Vorobyev, James van Riemsdyk and Matt Niskanen (power play) struck in the first period to build a quick 3-0 lead for the Flyers. In a lopsided second period, Ivan Provorov (power play), Tyler Pitlick and van Riemsdyk (power play) doubled the Flyers lead to 6-0. Victor Olofsson (power play) broke up the Flyers shutout bid with a tricky deflection of a Rasmus Dahlin shot.
In addition to the aforementioned goal scorers, Travis Konecny collected three assists, Kevin Hayes had two outstanding primary helpers and Sean Couturier a pair of secondaries. In all, 11 Flyers registered a point.
Carter Hart didn't see many shots, but came up big as needed. He stopped 16 of 17 shots, getting beaten only on a basty deflection. Carter Hutton was shaky at times for Buffalo, but also victimized by deflected pucks and Flyers forwards have almost free reign to go to the net. He stopped 22 of 26 shots.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
As long as the Flyers take care of their own business on Saturday, they will benefit in the Metro Standings regardless of the result of the game in Pittsburgh between the Penguins and Washington Capitals. Either the Flyers will move into possession of first place in the division by one or two points or they will open up a four-point or five-point lead over Pittsburgh in the battle for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.
After winning back-to-back games on the road on Wednesday in Washington and on home on Thursday against Carolina, the Flyers had an off-day on Friday.
Carter Hart is likely to get the start in goal for the Flyers against Buffalo.
SABRES OUTLOOK
Buffalo has lost five games in a row and six of their last 10. The Sabres are hopelessly out of the playoff race, sitting 12 points below the wildcard cutoff with 15 games left to play. On Thursday, the Sabres fell to the visiting Penguins, 4-2. Two nights after playing the Flyers, the Sabres will host the Capitals.
The Sabres practiced on Friday in Buffalo. Krueger shook up his forward line combinations. Eichel centered Jeff Skinner and Sam Reinhart. Previously, Skinner was with Curtis Lazar and trade deadline acquisition Wayne Simmonds. Typically on Eichel's line, Victor Olofsson skated with Marcus Johansson and Dominik Kahun.
Longtime Flyers power forward Simmonds, who came over to Buffalo from New Jersey, has one assist through five games with the Sabres. With the Devils, he had eight goals and 24 points in 61 games with the Devils.
Zemgus Girgensons (lower body) and Lawrence Pilut (illness) did not practice. Both players are day-to-day and could miss Saturday's game in Philadelphia, per the Sabres' official website.
Carter Hutton will get the start in Philadelphia. Linus Ullmark has returned from injury, and will serve as the backup goaltender for this game. The Sabres returned Jonas Johansson to the AHL's Rochester Americans.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
49 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
21 Scott Laughton - 38 Derek Grant - 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl - 44 Nate Thompson - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim -5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, Voracek, Provorov.
Power Play 2: Grant, Hayes, Aube-Kubel, Sanheim, Niskanen.
Scratches: 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (healthy), 25 James van Riemsdyk (broken right index finger, out 4-to-6 weeks from March 4).
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).
SABRES
53 Jeff Skinner - 9 Jack Eichel - Sam Reinhart
68 Victor Olofsson - 90 Marcus Johansson - 95 Dominik Kahun
13 Jimmy Vesey - 27 Curtis Lazar - 17 Wayne Simmonds
67 Michael Frolik - 22 Johan Larsson - 21 Kyle Okposo
33 Colin Miller - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
26 Rasmus Dahlin - 62 Brandon Montour
19 Jake McCabe - 10 Henri Jokiharju
40 Carter Hutton
[35 Linus Ullmark]
Power Play 1: Olofsson, Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin, Ristolainen
Power Play 2: Skinner, Johansson, Simmonds, Okposo, Montour
Scratches: 67 Michael Frolik (healthy), 24 Lawrence Pilut (illness), 28 Zemgus Girgensons (lower body).
IR: 17 Vladimir Sobotka (right knee surgery, Nov. 27) , 72 Tage Thompson (upper body, Nov. 16).
LTIR: 48 Matt Hunwick (neck)
*********
Phantoms Update
A two-goal, three-point performance from rookie center Morgan Frost was not enough, as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms fell, 6-4, to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at the PPL Center on Friday night. Carsen Twarynski and Andy Andreoff also scored in a losing cause for the Phantoms.
Rookie goalie Kirill Ustimenko took the loss. He stopped 29 of 34 shots before the Sound Tigers tack on an empty netter.
The Phantoms long-suffering power play found the net early in the first period. Greg Carey retrieved a loose puck and sent it to Chris Bigras high in the attack zone. Bigras then passed to Frost, who wired home a shot from the left circle past goatender Christopher Gibson at 1:23 of the first period.
It would be the only lead the Phantoms would hold in the game, and would be short-lived.
At 3:35, former Phantoms captain, Colin McDonald, deflected a Seth Helgeson shot into the net to tie the score at 1-1. At 7:36, Oliver Wahlstrom took a centering feed from Parker Wotherspoon and fired it past Ustimenko.
With 39 seconds left in the first period, Frost stole an attempted clearing pass that unwisely was put right into the slot. Frost quickly put the puck home to tie the game at 2-2 on an unassisted goal. He'd have several subsequent changes to complete a hat trick, but it wasn't to be on this night.
The Sound Tigers got the goal right back, taking a 3-2 lead to intermission. Just 16 seconds after Frost's second goal, a fluky goal by Nic Pierog took a favorable bounce into the net off goaltender Ustimenko.
Bridgeport opened a 4-2 lead at 14:04 of the second period. Sebastian Aho sent a pass to Kieffer Bellows in the right circle, and Bellows blasted a one-timer into the net. Carsen Twarynski got the game game back to 4-3 with 1:23 left in the second period. Kurtis Gabriel husled to cancel out an icing and sent the puck to Connnor Bunnaman near at the goal line. Bunnaman then passed to Twarynski, who beat Gibson.
At 10:12 of the third period, after Frost was robbed by Gibson and Lehigh Valley retained possession, the Phantoms tied the score. Frost fired a shot at the net and it bounced in off Andreoff's skate. The play was reviewed to see if Andreoff kicked the puck into the net, but the goal was upheld. David Kase earned the secondary assist.
One again, the Phantoms gave up a goal shortly after scoring one of their own. At 12:41 of the third period, an Andy Welinski turnover eventually turned into Bellows' second goal of the game. Late in regulation, Frost was denied on a glorious chance for a hat trick and a 5-5 tie. Subsequently, Robert Carpenter scored an empty net goal to seal a 6-4 win for Bridgeport.
The Phantoms and Sound Tigers will rematch at the PPL Center on Sunday. First, however, the Phantoms have to travel to Binghamton to play the Devils on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Sound Tigers are in Wilkes Barre on Saturday to play the WB/S Penguins before heading right back to Allentown.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»