Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame

This was a battle of teams who hate scoring the opening goal, with both the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres surrendering the game’s first goal 17 times this season. It was Jason Zucker who lit the lamp first, but the FlyGuys answered with three goals in 59 seconds from Travis Konecny, Trevor Zegras, and Bobby Brink.

There were moments the game was in doubt, but whether it was the Orange & Black netting a fifth goal 55 seconds after the Sabres made it 4-2, or a successful offside review by Rick Tocchet midway through the third to maintain a three-goal lead, this one was very much a game in Philly’s favor.

This game was also marred by a ton of penalties, with seven minors in the first period and 40 PIMs in the game, “highlighted” by a major and game miscounduct against Rasmus Dahlin for boarding Zegras.

First period

Three minutes and 20 seconds into the game, the Flyers have mostly controlled play, but Cam York is headed to the box for delay of game, for playing the puck over the glass in the defensive zone. The much-heralded Flyers PK is down to 11th in the league coming into tonight, and now they’re continuing their struggles, allowing Buffalo to take a 1-0 lead. Zason Zucker was left alone in front with Josh Doan feeding him from behind the net and the Flyers caught puck-watching. Looked like an assignment mix-up between Jamie Drysdale and Egor Zamula.

And now Matvei Michkov is going for interference, as Zach Benson draws him into a penalty by skating in his way. But things get evened up as Tage Thompson gets called for hooking Rodrigo Abols. Just as Michkov gets out of the box and the Flyers get the man advantage, a cross-check is called on Conor Timmins, so it’ll be 5v3 for 44 seconds. Not a ton of chances on the two-man advantage, as the shots haven’t come through a ton of traffic, and Travis Sanheim hasn’t exactly been hard on a couple of pucks.

Just as it seemed like nobody was going to put enough power on a puck to seriously endanger Buffalo’s lead, TRAVIS KONECNY WRISTS A PUCK TO FROM THE POINT THAT BEATS COLTEN ELLIS! But, we’ve got a goalie interference challenge, with Owen Tippett potentially breathing on the Sabres’ netminder. We’ll see. Who knows. Tippett got bumped into the blue, and when the contact occurred (if it even did), the puck was already by him. THE GOAL COUNTS! TK’S FIRST IN THE LAST 12 GAMES! AND PHILLY REAMINS ON THE POWER PLAY THANKS TO LINDY RUFF’S CHALLENGE!

TREVOR ZEGRAS MAKES IT 2-1! AND NOW IT’S 3-1! Zegras gets a great bounce as his no-look pass attempts deflects off a defender’s skate and into the net, and then Bobby Brink scores on a Noah Cates rebound after Nikita Grebenkin picks up a sloppy turnover as the Sabres attempt to leave the defensive zone. That’s three goals in 59 seconds! They really seem to love doing this.

The game has calmed since the flurry of goals, and with five minutes left in the first, the Flyers lead 3-1 with a 9-3, now a 9-4 shot advantage. Tippett and Zegras have both threatened recently, and Buffalo is attempting to make a push, but so far the Flyers have been the better team.

Buffalo back to the power play with under three minutes left, as Abols gets called for tripping. There may have been an interference or some sort of obstruction against Abols that knocked him down, forcing him into a desperation swing of his stick in the offensive zone, but honestly I’m just running out of patience with Abols. If you’re going to never produce, just don’t make mistakes. O-zone penalties are mistakes.

ANOTHER PENALTY GETTING CALLED! This one against the Sabres, it’ll be Peyton Krebs serving a high-sticking minor for hitting Coots in the helmet. There are only 20 seconds left in the period, and you know what that means… a period-splitting power play!

The period ends with the Flyers leading 3-1 on the scoreboard, and 11-4 in the shot department. There were seven minor penalties called, including the delay against Buffalo for the unsuccessful challenge. This game may never end unless the officials put the whistles away.

Second Period

JUST AS THE POWER PLAY EXPIRES, NOAH CATES NETS HIS SIXTH ON A REDIRECT IN FRONT FROM BRINK! The two nearly hooked up on a similar play from the other direction a sequence prior, but they’re not denied on the second try. The Flyers get the goal about five seconds after the carryover penalty from the first period expired. It’s 4-1, and the Sabres are still sitting on four SOG.

Ersson is awake! The first shots he sees of the second are a 2-on-1 shot from his left, with the rebound kicking out to the man on his right, and he was able to stick his pad out and deny both the initial bid and follow up. Ok, Erss!

Buffalo has really picked up the pace, and now they’re up to nine shots, with some good work around the offensive zone about five minutes into the middle frame. The Sabres are still applying pressure, forcing Ersson to continue to make saves, even without his stick (did he throw it at Tage Thompson?), denying Buffalo’s leading scorer on what should’ve been a slam dunk on a goal line play had Thompson not fumbled and stammered with the puck. But the Sabres have the last eight consecutive shots on goal, make it nine, as we approach the midway point.

Buffalo is getting a power play after Josh Dunne challenged both Abols and Garnet Hathaway, and then Nic Deslauriers arrived in ill-humor to let the “tough guy” know who he should be starting with. Dunne, Hathaway and DLo all go for roughing. The Flyers get the kill, but shortly after the penalty expires, Bowen Byram finally breaks through for Buffalo, receiving a pass from Alex Tuch off a loose puck in the slot and lifting it over Ersson’s glove to make it 4-2. The Sabres had been building momentum and have 13 of the game’s last 14 shots. Philly needs to wake up if they want to put this thing away. With 7:40 left, shots are 18-15 Buffalo.

TIPPETT ANSWERS! The Flyers make it 5-2 on a good offensive zone shift for the Michkov-Coots-Tippett line, with the captain and Michkov working hard down low to get the puck out to Tippett who banged it home. Really strong shift from that group.

Brink (1G, 1A), Konecny (1G, 1A), Cates (1G, 1A), Michkov (2A) and Sanheim (2A) all have multi-point games for Philly, with nearly half the game still remaining.

Oh no, Zegras might be hurt. We’ve got a bit of a melee with the Flyers all trying to get at Rasmus Dahlin. Zegras appears to be ok, and the Flyers are getting a power play. TNT doesn’t seem interested in showing us a replay, but nobody seemed too happy there. It looks like, well after the puck had been released on a rush chance for Zegras & TK, Dahlin followed Z into the corner and hit him straight in the numbers. It’s a five and a game for Dahlin after review. The puck did follow Zegras into the corner, but it was all numbers, cross-check into the back, sending Trevor face first into the boards.

Zegras is fine, and nearly scored almost right away on the power play. I’m still incensed.

Nothing too much after the Zegras chance early in the power play, and we head to the third with 1:49 of power play time left, and the Flyers leading 5-2. Shots are 23-18 back in Philly’s favor. A much busier period for Ersson, who stopped 13 of 14 in the second.

Third period

I was prerecording some ad-reads for Postgame for the first five or six minutes of the period, but I came back in time to see Michkov called for tripping, and the score still 5-2. This is Buffalo’s sixth power play, having gone 1/5 on their earlier advantages, after Sanheim was called for what I’ve been told was a ticky-tack hold earlier in the third.

Buffalo makes it a 2-goal game with 7:09 left. The Flyers have certainly taken their foot off the gas a bit, and after a Zamula turnover, Thompson puts the puck on net and Benson finishes for his first of the year. But we have a challenge! No, never mind. A timeout. But they do appear to be looking at something on the bench. Yup, they’re challenging for offside. NO GOAL! Still 5-2!

This was a mostly uneventful second half of the third period, with a lot of zone time but not the most dangerous of chances for Buffalo, and shots still very much in favor of the Flyers, 35-26 with 1:37 left. Michkov almost added another point, getting a chance at a bad angle and centering a puck as well, but Ellis swallowed it up.

The clock winds down with the fourth line on the ice and the Flyers have won four of five, and have at least one point in 11 of 15. This is Sam Ersson’s first regulation win.

Watch PHLY Flyers Postgame