Flyers Hold Rangers to Just 1 Goal in Black Friday Victory
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
That’s how you start off the holiday season.
The Flyers took down the New York Rangers at home this afternoon in a game that had John Tortorella’s fingerprints all over it. This game was a low-scoring, grind it out affair that Philadelphia ultimately came out on top of 3-1.
In years past, Wells Fargo Center has had an issue of Rangers fans coming in and taking over, but today they couldn’t be heard by the Flyers faithful. This was in large part thanks to Bobby Brink, who put the Flyers on the board in the first four minutes of the game, giving them a lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
Just a minute later, Travis Konecny would pad the Flyers’ lead to 2-0 and keep his offensive hot streak going strong. Konecny is top 20 in the league in both goals and points, as well as being 21st overall in assists. From this point on it would become a defensive battle, with Ivan Fedotov and Igor Shesterkin holding down the fort in net for their respective clubs until halfway through the second period.
It was here that Fedotov would finally crack, surrendering a goal to Vincent Trocheck to bring the Rangers to within one. Fedotov would not be rattled though, and did not give up a goal for the rest of the game.
In the Flyers’ last 11 games, they have scored at least one point in nine of them, with a 7-2-2 record. Of those 11 games starting goalie Samuel Ersson has missed eight of them. The Russian goalie tandem of Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov have done a fantastic job of holding down the fort in his absence and are showing great potential for the future of this team. There were a lot of questions about both of these players early in the season but the more they’ve been able to get on the ice the more comfortable they have looked.
As good as Fedotov played tonight it should also be noted that he only had to face 23 shots, compared to the 34 Philadelphia put up against Shesterkin. This was in large part thanks to the Flyers’ defense, which ended the game with 21 total blocks. By the final buzzer, five Flyers finished the game with multiple blocks, which is a stat that is sure to make John Tortorella smile.
As this game reached the final three minutes, New York pulled their goalie, and would spend the majority of the time in the Flyers zone. Fedotov, however, remained unphased and stopped everything that came his way until Konecny was finally able to take the puck down the length of the ice for an empty netter.
Much has been made about how this will be Matvei Michkov‘s team in the future, but the work Travis Konecny has put into making this team a contender again cannot and will not be ignored. Fans should be thrilled to know he will be a part of this club for years to come thanks to the eight-year, $70 million contract he signed this offseason.
The Flyers will travel to St. Louis to take on the Blues tomorrow, November 30, at 7:00 pm EST. The game can be watched on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
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Bo Lynett
Bo has been a fan of Philly sports his whole life and has spent the entirety of his four years at Colgate University working to start a career in sports media. Double majoring in Economics and Film & Media Studies gave him the opportunity to study both the financial/ analytical and broadcasting/ production sides of the sports world. Outside of the classroom, he’s worked as a director and producer for Colgate’s athletic events streamed on ESPN+ and a writer for the Colgate Athletic Website. Through all of this, however, it was his love of Philly sports that drove him to this career.
