Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame

WHY NOT US?!
The Philadelphia Flyers have handed the New Jersey Devils their first regulation loss on home ice, and the Orange & Black ended the road trip on a three-game winning streak!

Dan Vladar is a stud, Owen Tippett is hot, Matvei Michkov is coming back around, and even Travis Konecny got in on the fun after a long goal drought! Hell yeah!

First period

Twenty seconds into the game we’ve had two stoppages already, with a Flyers icing and a puck leaving play. Come on. It’s Saturday night, second game of back-to-backs. Let’s get it going!

Ok, I’ll take this whistle, though. Philly gets a power play on a high-stick when Simon Nemec can’t control his stick on a follow-through chipping the puck in. It seems like the officials determined the “follow through” already occurred and now he’s just waiving his stick around. Whatever… PECOOOOOO!

The Flyers don’t convert the man advantage into an early lead, but they got three shots on goal, and moved the puck pretty well. A few quicker decisions to shoot or pass could’ve created a true quality scoring chance or two. Shots are 4-0 Flyers 3:28 into the first period.

OWEN TIPPETT NETS HIS 100TH NHL GOAL TO PUT THE FLYERS UP 1-0! The Flyers get a bounce on a breakout and Christian Dvorak is able to feed Tippett as he breaks by a defender on the entry, then beat Jacob Markstrom with a forehand-backhand move to give Philadelphia the lead.

A shift later, Sean Couturier makes a similar play to Dvorak’s to set up Matvei Michkov coming across from the left side, but Michkov can’t get the puck all the way under Markstrom. It laid in the crease and rolled a second, but was cleared out. Very close to a 2-0 Flyers lead. It was a strong defensive play by Michkov to create a turnover and get the puck across to Coots that set up the sequence.

Philly has now scored the game’s opening goal in consecutive games, after allowing it in nine straight, and in 16 of the first 22 overall. The Flyers are 4-2-1 when scoring first this season.

Wow. The officials actually blew a play dead on a puck tied up along the boards. It was easily ten seconds of a tie-up. Don’t see that too often anymore.

As we tick under nine minutes left into the period the Devils get their first serious pressure of the game with a rush chance and then a few follow-up attempts, but it’s unclear if any of New Jersey’s bids reached Dan Vladar. Ok, the score bug is finally showing a second SOG for NJ, so at least one of the chances got there.

Well, it’s shot #3 for Jersey that beats Vladar, after a pair of chances down low for the Flyers off an icing, the Devils turned play the other way and Coots lost his stick, allowing Nemec to fire a puck, off a handoff from the right wing circle to the left, by Vladar to tie it up with under eight minutes left in the opening frame.

New Jersey appears to have awoken. They’re winning races to pucks and peppering Vladar with shots, many from their skilled defensemen. Nemec, Luke Hughes and Dougie Hamilton have accounted for three of the Devils’ five shots, and d-men have accounted for at least nine of NJ’s 19 total shot attempts with 4:30 left in the first.

Michkov gets called for “cross-checking” for shoving Hughes a little bit, really just leaning on him as Hughes went into the corner to retrieve a puck, and now the Flyers have to kill a penalty because the referees are soft and couldn’t stand to watch a man fall down safely. Unbelievably soft call.

Vladar put on a show in the final minute to keep the game tied, going post-to-post on several cross-ice plays both from the low and mid-zone areas. The period ends 1-1, with shots 8-6 in favor of Philly, and there are 45 seconds remaining on the Michkov “penalty.”

Oh, and not only was Tippett’s goal the 100th goal of his career, but also the 200th point. So with (at least) 40 minurtes to go in his 371st career game, Tippett has accumulated 100 goals and 100 assists, with 167 of those points coming as a member of the Flyers, in 277 games.

Second period

MICHKOV SCORES OUT OF THE BOX! We think. There doesn’t appear to be a push on the pad, and yup it counts! Travis Konecny carried the puck into the neutral zone as the penalty expired, and found Michkov blasting out of the box to create a 2-on-1 in the offensive zone. Michkov deked Markstrom with Nico Hischier all over him and as a pile formed in the Devils’ crease, the puck continued to roll through and over the goal line after it seemed like Markstrom may have stopped Mich 1-on-0 again. Nope! 2-1 Flyers!

MAKE IT 3-1 AS TK ENDS A 9-GAME GOAL DROUGHT! Cam York makes a great move to beat Stefan Noesen at the blue line, then sends a back hand feed to Konecny who blasts one from the top of the circle to give Philly a 2-goal lead in less than 2 1/2 minutes after Michkov’s goal. Jim Jackson noted the Flyers have become quite adept at scoring in close succession. The official time between goals appears to be 2:23.

The Flyers are pushing are a little time on defense and a scary moment with a turnover by Egor Zamula in front. But back on offense, there was a golden opportunity for the fourth line’s first goal of the year, but the puck eluded Jamie Drysdale as he pinched down with traffic in front. On the next shift, Tippett had a chance for #101 but couldn’t beat Markstrom after making some room for himself on the left wing.

The Zegras-Dvorak-Tippett line is creating chance after chance and has nearly scored a number of times. They’re going to get another one before this game ends.

The Devils are making their push with the Cates line on the ice, and mercifully Vladar freezes the puck after about 10 attempts, a couple of which seemed to really sting Tyson Foerster and at least one other Flyer. Maybe Nick Seeler seemed to take one up high? It was like a shooting gallery for a little bit there, with NJ adding at least three SOG to their total in about 30 seconds.

TREVOR ZEGRAS GETS IN ON THE ACTION! After Tippett gets intercepted to setup a Devils breakaway that hits the post, Travis Sanheim collects the puck, gets rocked, Tippett picks it up, zips up the left side, sends a pass across to Zegras who deposits it into the net for the 4-1 lead. WILD!

And now, with 3:56 left, the Flyers are getting a power play. Coots and Brenden Dillon are both going to the box for cross-checking, with Dillon getting an extra minor for unsportsmanlike. PECOOOOO!

Dan Vladar the star of the power play, making an incredible save on a short-handed 2-on-1, stuffing Dawson Mercer after a couple passes seemed to be setting up a sure goal. But as play goes the other way, the Flyers get called for too many men, ending the power play.

DA(M)N VlaSTAR continues to come up huge with Jersey now on the power play. He’s insane. Could our search for a goaltender truly be over? Well, just as I say it, the Devils cash-in just before the power play ends. Timo Meier pots a rebound that bounced right into the slot. That stinks. Vladar still rules, though. 4-2 as the clock winds down and eventually the period ends.

The Devils totaled six shots on the power play in that period, outshooting the Flyers 14-12 overall. The total for the game is 20 a piece.

Third period

Let’s see if the Flyers can protect the lead, which hasn’t been nearly as easy as coming back in games for the Orange & Black thus far. That said, Philly is 6-0-0 when leading after two periods, regardless of how the games have unfolded, the results have ultimately been good. Let’s make it 7-0-0, without any need for overtime. That’d be great.

Tyson Foerster had a chance to extend the lead to three, when a Dougie Hamilton turnover finds TK in the high slot. TK elected to feed Foerster in the low LW circle with a one-timer, but Markstrom was there.

The Flyers were defending a lot in the first three minutes of the third but now have applied some pressure of their own. Michkov and York had scoring chances on the next shift, but a sprawling Markstrom denied them.

Shit. A terrible decision by Trevor Zegras to bring the puck back into the d-zone and skate himself into trouble, coughing it up, allows Mercer to dance into the zone and across Vladar’s crease, eventually depositing the puck into the net on his backhand. 4-3 with 13:32 left. I definitely can’t say I’m comfortable with how this is unfolding.

And now Garnet Hathaway puts a puck into the seats, giving the Devils a power play on a delay of game call. Ugh. They can’t help themselves. They crave tie games. But hey… maybe they’ll get a shortie?

Well, the Flyers survive. Vladar had to make a few saves, but it was mostly an effective PK in what has not been an awesome month of November for the unit.

Markstrom continues his big third period with under nine minutes left, denying Tippett on a bid from the bottom of the LW circle on a great pass from Zegras below the goal line. The fourth line comes on and gets more possession time, and even a few chances. Now would be a great time for their first goal of the season.

With 7:07 left, Coots looks like he’s getting called for high-sticking Hughes, despite it looking like he was playing the puck. No penalty on the play! And on replay, Coots definitely got away with a high-stick. Phew! Hughes is hurt/bleeding, he needs some sort of attention and just like that a slash gets called against the Flyers. York goes off with 6:44 left. He did it, too. That was dumb.

The penalty is killed, but the Devils are still applying pressure. I’m uneasy.

Oh my god what a save by Markstrom! The Flyers have an odd-man rush, with Michkov looking to find Foerster on the backdoor. NJ’s sliding d-man deflects the pass right to a trailing Cates, who has time and space and somehow Markstrom robs him with the glove. Bastard.

OWEN TIPPETT PUTS IT AWAY! Well, sort of! Tippett blocked and took a point attempt the other way but got tripped and thus, with the Devils net empty, was awarded a goal. It’s 5-3 Flyers, and that’s how it’ll end. HOORAY! THREE IN A ROW! THAT’S A WINNING STREAK!

And that’s also NJ’s first regulation loss at home this season.

Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame