The Philadelphia Flyers finished their three-game road trip with a visit to Prudential Center to take on the New Jersey Devils. They pulled out a 3-1 win to end the road trip 2-0-1 and got back over hockey .500 on the season. Blocked shots and another solid performance by Samuel Ersson led the way to two more points. The Flyers are now 21-20-6 with 48 points through 47 games.
Dougie Hamilton gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at the 2:17 mark of the first period. His wrist shot from the slot went top corner past Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson. There was plenty of traffic in front that made it difficult to find the puck. Nathan Bastian and Tomas Tatar collected assists.
The Devils got the games first power play at the 6:32 mark of the first period as Travis Konecny got called for tripping. The Flyers were able to clear the puck on a few turnovers even though the speed of the Devils gave them trouble.
The Flyers got their first power play at the 11:44 mark of the first period as Luke Hughes was called for tripping. They had trouble setting up in the offensive zone and only managed to get one shot on net. The forechecking of the Devils gave them all kinds of trouble.
Matvei Michkov tied the game up at one at the 1:56 mark of the second period. Sean Couturier found him ahead of the Devils defense and sent him on a breakaway. His snapshot went off the left post and past the glove of Devils goaltender Jake Allen. Couturier received the lonely assist.
Jamie Drysdale was called for holding at the 15:55 mark of the second period which gave the Devils their second power play. The Flyers limited them to only two shots on net, but Ersson had to make two huge saves of Dawson Mercer.
Jonas Siegenthaler was called for slashing at the 12:17 mark of the third period which gave the Flyers their second power play. They capitalized on this one as Noah Cates found Bobby Brink in the slot all alone from the side of the net and Brink put a wrist shot past the glove of Allen at the 12:44 mark. Cates and Tyson Foerster tallied assists.
The Devils pulled Allen with 2:06 left in the third period but couldn’t get any more pucks past Ersson. However, the Flyers took advantage of the empty net as Foerster poked the puck out of the defensive zone and sent Konecny on a breakaway. He scored with two seconds remaining in the game to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Foerster was given the only assist.
The Flyers went 0 for 2 on the power play but killed off both of the Devils man advantages.
Ersson was solid in net for the Flyers and had to come up big at times. He saved 12 of 13 shots, giving him a .923 save percentage.
Goal Summary
1st Period:
Hamilton (6) Assists: Bastian (5), Tatar (7)
2nd Period: I’m
Michkov (14) Assists: Couturier (15)
3rd Period:
Brink (6) (Power Play) Assists: Cates (11), Foerster (9)
Konecny (21) (Empty Net) Assists: Foerster (10)
Flyers Next Game
Flyers next game is Tuesday, Jan 21. in Philadelphia against the Detroit Red Wings.
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