Garnet Hathaway had a scoring chance directly off the opening faceoff of the second period. The Flyers continued to control the territorial battles until the Rangers cut their deficit to one goal at 10:20. Vincent Trochek (5th) ripped home a shot from the slot, assisted by Will Cuylle and Braden Schneider. On the sequence, Scott Laughton lost his stick, went back to the bench to retrieve a new one and the play essentially turned into a 5-on-4.
The Rangers surged over the next several shifts. Second period shots on goal were 12-10 in the Flyers’ favor (27-14 through two periods).
New York came out charging in the third period. The Flyers had to go into bend-but-don’t-break mode and blocked multiple Rangers shot attempts. The Rangers had six of the first eight shots of the frame. New York made a heavy late push but couldn’t find an equalizer.
Finally, at 19:32, Konecny (second of the game, 13th of the season) took a lead pass from Travis Sanheim and had an empty net tap-in to seal the victory.
Fedotov made 10 third period saves in nailing down the win. Overall, the Russian netminder stopped 23 of 24 shots. In a losing cause, Shesterkin saw 22 shots before the game was even halfway through but kept the Rangers within striking distance. Overall, he stopped 32 of 34 shots he faced.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
86 Joel Farabee – 14 Sean Couturier – 11 Travis Konecny
74 Own Tippett – 48 Morgan Frost – 39 Matvei Michkov
71 Tyson Foerster – 27 Noah Cates- 10 Bobby Brink
21 Scott Laughton – 25 Ryan Poehling – 19 Garnet Hathaway
6 Travis Sanheim – 8 Cam York
36 Emil Andrae – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler – 3 Helge Grans
82 Ivan Fedotov
[35 Aleksei Kolosov]
PP1: Andrae, Frost, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Sanheim, Tippett Farabee, Foerster ,Brink
Scratches: 5 Egor Zamula (healthy),77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (healthy), 36 Emil Andrae (mid-body injury), 9 Jamie Drysdale (IR), 33 Samuel Ersson (IR, lower body).
TURNING POINT
The 70 second span in the first period in which the game went from scoreless to a 2-0 Flyers lead put Philly in the driver’s seat. There were nervous moments over the final 30 minutes of the game but the Flyers never relinquished the lead.
POSTGAME 5 (“5 Things” Revisited)
1. Puck management: The Rangers were charged with nine giveaways in the first period to five by the Flyers. In the second period, the Flyers escaped from a few high-risk plays that resulted in turnovers, but they still had the better of the play. In the third period, the Flyers tightened up their checking. Overall, the Rangers were charged with 18 giveaways to 14 for the Flyers.The Flyers were also credited with seven takeaways.
2. Konecny the catalyst: The Flyers leading scorer made it 11 of the last 12 games in which he’s recorded at least one point. In the third period, he had a golden opportunity for an insurance goal. Credited with the game-winning goal for his first period tally, Konecny later added the insurance goal that iced the win.
3. Couturier goal streak: The Flyers captain was unable to extend his goal streak to four straight games. Nonetheless, his pass to Konecny produced the game-winning goal. He also went 10-for-16 on faceoffs, and was credited with a takeaway and a blocked shot.
4. Special teams outlook: The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. They were not called for any penalties on this day. There were no power plays for either team until 6:20 of the third period as Tippett drew a neutral zone holding penalty against Reilly Smith.The Flyers were unable to do much with the man advantage except a harmless unscreened shot by Andrae.
5. Containing Panarin, Fox and Zibanejad: The Flyers held Artemi Panarin. Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad entirely off the scoresheet on Saturday. Fox had a rough period. Panarin and Zibanejad were largely held quiet until being in the middle of some scoring chances in the third period.
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