Photo Credits: Rob Windfelder
The Flyers have been turning things around as of late earing nine points in their last five games. Four of those five games were settled in overtime or shootouts. Tonight the Flyers defeated the Sabres solidly in regulation by the score of 5-2. Over the course of the past week and a half the Flyers have gone from sharing the worst record in the league to a more respectable 8-8-2. As for now things are definitely looking up for the Philadelphia hockey club.
Philly vs Buffalo
The Sabres started looking frustrated very early in this game as the Flyers kept up persistent pressure in the Buffalo zone. As the Sabres couldn’t seem find a strategic solution to the Flyers, frustration took its toll and sticks started to come up. Connor Clifton put a nasty cross-check on Garnet Hathaway. Moments later with Zach Benson in the box for slashing Rasmus Ristolainen the Flyers scored first on the power-play.
Joel Farabee fired the puck into traffic. Devon Levi made the initial save. Anthony Richard got a whack at it but it was Tyson Foerster who pushed the puck through the pads putting the Flyers ahead one to nothing.
Travis Sanheim spent the 1st period fine tuning his shot. He had a couple near misses and a “how did he miss that” before hitting the net with a blast from the circle. Konecny dished the puck to Egor Zamula. Zamula came up through the slot and passed the puck sideways to Sanheim teeing him up for the one timer that beat Levi glove side.
Ivan Fedotov
A key factor in the Flyers recent upswing has been the play of goaltender Ivan Fedotov. With Samuel Ersson out with a minor injury Fedotov has been picking up the workload in the Flyers net. Tonight was his third win in as many starts. He has been playing with confidence and a more compact positioning style. He is a huge guy that takes up a lot of room naturally. The momentum of his big frame can tend to pull him out of position. He seems to be stabilizing his positioning, simplifying his game a bit, and it has been working out for him.
Something of notice. At the start of the season teams were having success firing on him from a distance. Fedotov is tall enough that he can see over traffic in front of his net from a standing position. Because of this though it takes him longer to get down to the butterfly to deal with the shot or possible deflections as they come in. He has noticeably been spending more time crouching and looking through traffic from side to side the way a shorter goaltender would need to do. This is keeping him closer to the ice and in a better position to react to shots.
Offense
Egor Zamula opened the 2nd period with a shot from the point that knocked the stick out of the defenders hand and made its way through traffic and into the Sabers net. The Flyers extended their lead to 3-0 just 2:08 into the 2nd period.
The Flyers closed out the middle period with Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny breaking into the Sabers zone 2-on-0 after a stretch pass from Travis Sanheim. Michkov carried, faked the shot, and passed the puck to Konecny who fired it glove side past the sprawling Buffalo netminder at 17:07. TK celebrated his goal by immediately getting into it with Zach Benson. Time of the penalties 17:07.
Penalties
Both teams took a lot of calls in this game, you could argue there should have been more calls than there actually were. Halfway through the 3rd period with Sanheim in the box for holding the Sabres were setting up in the Flyers zone with the man advantage. Nick Seeler was pulled down from behind no call was made. The trip took him totally out of the play as his stick went flying across the ice. Rasmus Dahlin scored on a shot from the point breaking the shutout.
The Sabers down 4-1 pulled their goalie with more than five minutes left in regulation. Ryan McLeod scored a messy goal with just over a minute left. Konecny finished out the night with an empty netter.
TK had another monster game. He now has 12 points in his last 6 games. Tonight he had two goals, an assist, and six shots on net. Michkov and Richard both with two assists. Sanheim and Zamula both with one of each. Things are looking up for the Flyers as they soundly defeated the Buffalo Sabers in front of a revved up Philly crowd. What a great way for Erik Johnson to spend his 1,000 NHL game.
Next Up: Flyers Avalanche Monday night in Philadelphia 7PM
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