The Flyers coming out of a tumultuous week were in Salt Lake to take on the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday night. The Orange and Black were not only on a down-swing and a losing streak but they had been shutout a franchise record three games in a row coming into tonight.
After trading Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost the team is still awaiting the arrival of their replacements. Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier are still dealing with visa issues and have yet to report to the team. Nicolas Deslauriers made his return tonight for the first time in 39 games and was very involved in the 1st period action.
Goal !!!
Just 2:02 into the 1st period the Flyers scoreless streak was finally broken. Travis Sanheim to Rodrigo Abols at the top of the circle. Abols fired a wrist shot through traffic with Deslauriers screening on the doorstep to score his first NHL goal. D-Low was sure to snag the puck for Abols before joining the celebration.
Abols goal came more than a week after the Flyers last. Scott Laughton scored on an empty net with 15 seconds left in the Devils game last Monday night in Philly. It has been 93 minutes and 13 seconds of clock time between these two tallies.
Main Event
A dust up between Travis Sanheim and Liam O’Brien behind the Flyers net came to a quick end when Nicolas Deslauriers joined the conversation. Right after the ensuing faceoff Deslauriers and O’Brien started ditching their sticks and gloves as they headed to center ice to square off.
They sized each other up for quite some time before engaging. It was a heavy weight bout with Deslauriers ending up on top. This was the first time we’ve gotten to see #44 since November. He’s exactly the same guy we remember as he sat in the box with a bag of ice on his hands and a smile on his face. O’brian was seated in the other bin blowing blood into a towel.
Flyers netminder Samuel Ersson made a huge save in the final seconds against Nick Bjugstad point blank to protect the Flyers one goal lead going into the first intermission.
Utah struck early in the second. On an agressive rush that had the Flyers defense scrambling. Mikhail Sergachev beat Ersson with a wrist shot from the circle tying the score at one.
Get it back
Less than one minute later Tyson Foerster scored on a tap in at the side of the net. A stretch pass through the neutral zone found Sean Couturier breaking into the zone. Coots threaded the pass to Foerster who directed the puck into the net as Utah goaltender Karel Vegmelka was hugging the short side post.
Second looks
Travis Konecny appeared to give the Flyers a two goal lead at 11:14 but upon review almost all of the Flyers were offsides on the play.
Moments later Travis Sanheim was called for delay of game for shooting the puck out of the ice surface in the defensive zone. Much confusion ensued. First off it was Rodrigo Abols who fired the puck. Flyers head coach John Tortorella called a timeout to discuss the possibility of challenging the call. The decision was made not to make the challenge. Further review seemed to show that the puck did go off the wall before leaving the rink.
Samuel Ersson
The Flyers were successful on the kill allowing only one shot which was handled well by Ersson. The Flyers goalie was called on many times in the 2nd period and stood tall to the challenge. The Flyers were allowing multiple odd man rushes including two breakaways by Liam O’Brien.
Ersson has been playing some great hockey as of late. Many of his performances have been overlooked due to his team’s inability to score. With seconds left in the middle period Nick Seeler was called for an absolutely invisible holding penalty. (not being a homer here) Some of the calls or lack there of in this game were really baffling.
The third period started with a huge chunk of the Utah man advantage yet to be played. Utah had a number of great chances only to be stimied by the fine play of the Flyers netminder. Ersson made “that save” over and over again. Ersson had a career high 39 saves by the time this match was over.
After several unsuccessful well executed side to side passing players Utah’s Dylan Guenther took the simple approach to tie the score at two. Guenther came right up the middle and fired a shot through the legs of Emil Andrae that beat Ersson through the five hole.
The Flyers had their only powerplay of the game with 6:31 left in regulation. It was the type of man advantage that would have blown the roof off of the Flyers barn with the home town crowd screaming “shooooot”.
OT
The Flyers allowed a dangerous chance in the final seconds of every period in this game. The overtime was no exception. Dylan Guenther scored his second goal of the game with less than a second left on the clock. He ripped a beautiful rocket high blocker side with .08 left on the clock. It was a stunner. The Flyers were forced settle for one point which is a small victory, it’s the first one in a little while.
Extra Credit: Matvie Michkov looked much more like himself in this tilt. Good to see. Jamey Drysdale also has really improved his pacing when it comes to making decisions with the puck and it’s really improving his game.
Next up Flyers host the mighty Washington Capitals on Thursday night 7:00 PM at The Farg. …Maybe we’ll get a look at our new guys sometime soon?
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
