The Philadelphia Flyers had yet another spectacular performance against a poor Buffalo team yesterday to sweep the two game series. The Flyers’ goalies Brian Eliott and Carter Hart did not allow a goal the entire weekend.
They had a dominant performance on Sunday. There was no scoring in the first period and both teams killed off a penalty. Carter Hart for the Flyers and Jonas Johansson for the Sabres stood tall and the first period ended 0-0.
Just 22 seconds into the second period, Flyers’ Sean Couturier jumped on a rebound and the Flyers took a 1-0 lead. Couturier was able to reach around Jack Eichel of the Sabres so that he could knock in the puck. It was a poor defensive effort by Eichel. About a minute later, Michael Raffl tipped in a slapshot buy Robert Hägg which made the score 2-0 Flyers. Raffl was able to redirect the puck over the goalie Johansson. Carter Hart made a spectacular sliding save on Kyle Okposo on a 2-on-1 to keep the score 2-0. With less than five minutes left in the period, the Flyers were able to keep possession of the puck in the Sabres end for a significant amount of time against a tired Sabres defense. Eventually, the puck ended up on Joel Farabee’s stick and he shot the puck from the center point to the left of the goal and James van Riemsdyk made a nifty backhand deflection to make the score 3-0 Flyers. It was van Riemsdyk’s 10th goal of the year.
The Flyers played an excellent defensive third period and were able to complete their second shutout in consecutive days. Carter Hart made 28 saves and the win really wasn’t in doubt once the Flyers took the 3-0 lead.
This young Flyers team extends their winning streak to three, and have a 11-4-3 record as Buffalo drops to 6-10-3 on the season. The Flyers should have some momentum going into their game with Pittsburgh on Tuesday. For me the biggest question is who will start in goal after great efforts over the weekend. Right now you really can’t go wrong with either goalie.
NEXT UP: The Flyers are traveling to take on the 11-8-1 Pittsburgh for a three game series. First game will be Tuesday night at 7:00 PM on NBCSN and NBC Sports Philadelphia.
