After ending their five-game losing streak on Tuesday night via a 2-1 victory on the road against the Panthers, the Philadelphia Flyers returned home to kick off a three-game homestand as they welcomed the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night with a 4-1 victory.
Philadelphia entered this evening’s contest sitting third in the Metropolitan Division and only three points behind second-place Carolina.
As for Winnipeg, they were coming off a 3-0 shutout loss at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and also sit third in the Central Division.
Samuel Ersson made his sixth consecutive start, going up against Laurent Brossoit, starting over Connor Hellebuyck. Rasmus Ristolainen missed the game for the Flyers due to illness.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers offense struck rather early. Noah Cates made a nice pass to find Ryan Poehling on an odd-man rush. Poehling crossed over to a wide open Tyson Foerster for the tip-in goal, his 10th of the season, to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead.
The contest also saw an early fight as Flyers All-Star representative Travis Konecny dueled with Jets defenseman Neal Pionk.
Konecny returned to the ice after serving his five minutes in the sin-bin and potted a goal of his own with just under six minutes to play to pot his team-leading 24th tally of the season.
As if the Flyers didn’t need any more offense, Morgan Frost sniped a shot under the glove of Brossoit, off the post and in to triple the Flyers lead. Konecny’s assist on Frost’s eighth goal of the season gave him a first period Gordie Howe hat trick (goal, assist, fight).
Ersson was rather quiet in the first frame as the Flyers’ defense held the Jets to five shots, all of which he was able to stop.
The first period came to a close as the Flyers offense was off to an electric start. Philadelphia did go 0-2 on their struggling power play, which ranks 31st in the NHL.
SECOND PERIOD
The Orange and Black received a penalty early in the second period. Poehling earned his second point of the night with a shorthanded goal of his own, the Flyers’ 11th of the season, to put them up 4-0.
The Jets were unsuccessful in capitalizing with a power play goal as Ersson stood on his feet to stop Winnipeg from capitalizing on the man-advantage.
The Flyers’ penalty killing unit hit the ice multiple times during the period as Philadelphia took penalties back-and-forth. Konecny received a second penalty but the second-best penalty killing team in the NHL kept Winnipeg off the board. Scott Laughton also took a penalty late in the period – once again the Flyers killed it off.
Some commotion occurred at the end of the period as Dylan Samberg took a shot on Ersson after the regulation horn had clearly sounded and Konecny was there to step up for his goaltender.
The Flyers and Jets left the ice with Philly holding a commanding 4-0 lead.
THIRD PERIOD
Philadelphia began the third period holding their four-goal lead and had to send out their penalty killing unit as Garnet Hathaway shot the puck out of play. The Flyers were able to kill off the penalty and would keep Winnipeg from registering a power play goal.
The Jets finally solved Ersson with about five minutes remaining in the period as Kyle Connor‘s 19th goal of the season was the first Winnipeg goal against the Flyers since Jan. 22, 2023. Philadelphia had previously shut the Jets out the last two games.
UP NEXT
The Orange and Black will return to action Saturday night when they host the Seattle Kraken (7:00pm ET, ESPN+/Hulu).
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