After trailing 2-0 and 3-2 at different points in the game, the Philadelphia Flyers fought off the New York Rangers in overtime fashion on Friday night, 4-3, to take the first game of their 2025 Rookie Series.
Denver Barkey, Alexis Gendron, and Jacob Gaucher scored in regulation for the Flyers before Nikita Grebenkin fired home the game-winner less than a minute into the extra frame. Carson Bjarnason played the entire game in goal for the Flyers and shook off the early cobwebs to help the Orange and Black rookies complete the comeback with 21 saves.
“I thought we had a lot of players who stood out tonight,” said Flyers Rookie Series coach and Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach John Snowden. “I thought [Denver] Barkey was excellent tonight. Made tons of plays, was competitive on pucks. We saw [Alex] Bump taking that step and making plays and fending guys off. [Nikita] Grebenkin was really good. I thought [Spencer] Gill looked good at his times up and down the rink, he was joining, made some smart puck plays. [Ethan] Samson I thought looked pretty good tonight as well. I thought as a whole we were very good.”
FIRST PERIOD
Brennan Othmann kicked off the scoring early for the Rangers after he scored as he was alone in front and beat Bjarnason low.
Dylan Roobroeck then made it 2-0 in quick succession on a shot from the right circle that leaked through Bjarnason.
SECOND PERIOD
Jacob Gaucher and Corbin Vaughan dropped the gloves just about two minutes into the middle frame, with the New York blueliner earning the decision.
Just over a minute after the fight, the newly-acquired Tucker Robertson skated into the offensive zone and then beautifully connected with Denver Barkey on a cross-ice feed for a goal, cutting the deficit in half for Philadelphia.
Just over three minutes later, Alexis Gendron received a pass from Karsen Dorwart on a 2-on-1 chance and scored shorthanded to even the game up for the Flyers.
The Rangers would take the lead back inside seven minutes to go as Raoul Boilard found room upstairs on Bjarnason to make it a 3-2 game.
With 3:33 left on the clock, Vaughan dropped the gloves again but this time with Sawyer Boulton. The bruising forward took Vaughan to the ice and fired up the PPL Center crowd after a spirited tilt.
THIRD PERIOD
Just past the halfway mark of the third period, Devin Kaplan knifed his way into the zone and niftily set up a waiting Gaucher at the goal mouth for an easy tap-in to tie the game up at 3-3.
OVERTIME
Nikita Grebenkin made short work of the Rangers as he fired a bullet by the glove of Hugo Ollas just 58 seconds into overtime to give the Flyers the victory in Allentown.
UP NEXT
Game 2 of the Rookie Series will take place on Saturday at PPL Center at 5:00pm ET. The game will be streamed on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com once again.
