Flyers Comeback To Win Over Defending Stanley Cup Champions
Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
The Flyers won 4-3 at the Wells Fargo Center against the Florida Panthers Monday night. It’s their first time winning 2 games in a row since the wins against the Blue Jackets and the Red Wings from December 10 to December 12.
Let’s recap the game.
First period
The Flyers won’t start the game as they wanted. Sam Reinhart struck first, down a man, after a turnover created by Jamie Drysdale. Travis Konecny couldn’t win the 1-on-1 battle against Reinhart, who made it 1-0.
A few minutes later, the Panthers made it 2-0. Uvis Balinskis scored, assisted by Evan Rodrigues and Nate Schmidt. This is a bad goal allowed by Samuel Ersson between his legs. Cam York screened Ersson but he should have made a save.
Second period
After a bad first period for the Flyers, Garnet Hathaway scored his fifth goal of the season to make it 2-1. Schmidt put the puck in his own net after Hathaway wanted to make a pass to Poehling in front of the net.
The period ended 2-1. The Flyers were a different team in the second period where they controlled most of the play, created turnovers, and had quality chances. The shots were 14-6 in favor of the Flyers during this period.
Third period
The powerplay finally struck early in the third period to tie the game. Noah Cates took the rebound from a shot from Travis Sanheim to put the puck in a wide-open net.
Although the Flyers tied it, Reinhart gave the lead back to the Panthers on the powerplay after a penalty from Sean Couturier with 16:25 left in the period. Ersson would like to have that goal back too. It’s hard to blame him on this one, but it’s a save that he could have made. There was no screen in front of him and the puck went through him, low glove.
The Flyers tied the game back up with 14:01 left in the period. Morgan Frost. assisted by Matvei Michkov and Drysdale, after a huge play by Drysdale who moved his legs and made a pass to Michkov. It’s the second powerplay goal of the period for the Flyers and it’s the first time, in the John Tortorella era that the Flyers scored multiple powerplay goals in a game for back-to-back games.
With 5:51 left, Cates made a huge play to give the Flyers the lead for the first time in the game and won it in South Philly. The goal was assisted by Tyson Foerster and Egor Zamula. He deflected the puck through center ice to go on a breakaway and beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a beautiful backhand move.
Some big save Ersson in the final minutes sold the deal, earning the Flyers back-to-back wins.
They will be back at it Tuesday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets.
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Ralph Zakhour
Ralph is a social sciences student who has been a Philadelphia Flyers fan since 2010. He is from Montreal and played hockey, as a goalie, for several years. He writes articles as a hobby.
