Photo Credit: Derick Hamilton/AP
After winning their first game since late December this past Saturday, the Flyers found a way to win their second game in a row.
James van Riemsdyk scored a big goal late en route to a 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets.
“. . . [It] certainly wasn’t the start we wanted to the game,” van Riemsdyk said. “Giving up a goal like that on our lines first shift. I think we’ve done a better job lately of just sticking with it and when things go bad not letting them start to snowball. We stayed in the game. [We] hung in there. Hartsy [Carter Hart] made some big saves to keep us right there and obviously we were able to capitalize on some chances, finally.”
Kyle Connor got the Jets on the board :48 seconds into the game on a breakdown by Travis Konecny. He now has 25 goals on the season which leads the Jets.
Aside from the goal and a point-blank chance from Josh Morrissey, the Jets didn’t create many high-danger scoring chances. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had seven high-danger scoring chances in the first period while the Jets registered only one.
The Flyers best chance of the period came courtesy of a weird bounce off the boards. Claude Giroux was robbed by Connor Hellebuyck in tight when he stuck out his pad to make an incredible save.
The Flyers got their first power play of the game with 4:56 remaining in the first period after Claude Giroux was interfered with attempting to chase down the puck. Unfortunately, the Flyers didn’t get a chance to do much with the man-advantage due to a James van Riemsdyk hooking penalty just :35 seconds later.
Nothing worth noting ensued on the 1:25 of 4-on-4 play.
The Flyers got another chance on the man-advantage with less than two minutes remaining in the period when Scott Laughton was cross-checked cutting towards the net. Nothing came of it though as the Jets did a good job of keeping the Flyers to the outside.
The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the man-advantage and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
After what was a pretty slow start to the second period for the Flyers offensively, Travis Konecny scored his eighth goal of the season capitalizing off a Jets turnover to tie the game up at 1-1. He then followed up a big hit on Jets forward Cole Perfetti shortly after.
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“That was big for our line there,” Konecny said. “For me, I gave up that first one. That was my mistake. So it felt good to go back and get the team back in it.”
The Flyers fed off of Konecny’s goal and started to buzz in the offensive zone.
The Jets had the better of the offensive chances in the first half of the period. Carter Hart made two huge saves to keep it a 1-0 game. With the Jets on the power play, Jets forward Blake Wheeler made a nice feed down low to Kyle Connor who was ultimately denied when Carter Hart came sliding across on the point-blank chance. Soon after, the Jets had a chance to take the lead again on a 2-on-0. Carter Hart slid across to make a huge save on Wheeler.
“He was awesome,” Flyers head coach Mike Yeo said. “I think one of the things we touched on after the game that we’ve really been trying to stress and work and build on, when the other team scores first, staying with your game, staying in the game, and giving yourself an opportunity to climb back into it. That doesn’t happen without Carter, tonight especially. Couple key moments, they got a 2-on-0 at one point, the penalty kill we gave up a pretty good look, huge look, back door and he was outstanding. When he’s playing like that, when he’s competing like that, or any goalie is for that matter, it really builds confidence for your group and gives you the chance to settle down and get back on the attack.”
Hart stopped 21 of 22 shots fired his way in the second period and 32 of 33 for the game.
Shots were 15-10 in favor of Winnipeg in the second period.
It was more of the same in the third period. Carter Hart made a huge save on Mark Scheifele to keep the game tied at 1-1.
The Flyers had plenty of scoring chances throughout the course of the game but had a hard time solving Hellebuyck. They finally cashed in a second time with a little over with 4:49 remaining in regulation.
On what was a 2-on-1 for the Flyers, James van Riemsdyk potted his 11th goal of the season on a rebound given up by Hellebuyck. Scott Laughton took the original shot and set van Riemsdyk up for a tap-in goal.
Oskar Lindblom sealed the deal with an empty net goal to give the Flyers their second win in as many games.
Interestingly enough…
- Travis Konecny has a point in three of his last five games. With tonight’s goal, Konecny now has eight goals on the season. He scored 24 goals in 66 games back in 2019-20.
- Scott Laughton has points in seven of his last nine games (one goal, six assists).
- James van Riemsdyk led the Flyers in shots on goal with seven.
- The Flyers faced the Jets tonight for the first time since Feb. 22, 2020.
- The Flyers are 9-0-1 in their last ten games on home ice against the Jets.
- The Flyers earned their first regulation win since Dec. 14.
Next Up:
The Flyers get a full week off from game action due to the NHL All-Star break before hosting the Detroit Red Wings (20-20-6) next Wednesday (Feb. 9) in South Philadelphia.
The Red Wings have two players that could potentially be in the running for the Calder Trophy which is given “to the player selected as most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League”. Rookie defenseman Mortiz Seider leads the Red Wings in assists (25) and is fourth in points (29). On the offensive side of things, forward Lucas Raymond sits in second place in assists on Detroit (24) and third in points (35).
Forward Dylan Larkin leads the team in goals (23) and points (43). He’s third on the team in assists (20). In 14 career games against the Flyers, Larkin has registered eight points (3 goals, 5 assists).
Detroit has trouble scoring and keeping the puck out of the net. They rank near the bottom of the league in both goals for per game (2.72 GF/GP) and goals against per game (3.39 GA/GP).
Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. ET from the Wells Fargo Center.
