The Philadelphia Flyers (9-5-3) began game one of a back-to-back road trip with a resilient 6-5 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues (6-8-4) Friday night at Enterprise Center all while the Flyers’ dads watched from the club box.
Trailing by two goals on two separate occasions, the Flyers leaned heavily on one line consisting of Owen Tippett, Christian Dvorak, and Trevor Zegras to pave the way for Philadelphia and snag two points.
The trio combined for five goals and ten points with a +7 rating.
“It speaks for itself,” Tippett said on his line’s chemistry. “Dvo’s good all around the ice and Ziggy just hangs onto it and makes plays no matter where he is and how many guys are on him. We’ve been together for a good portion of the year now and it was fun tonight.”
The Flyers’ reincarnated “Legion of Doom” line picked up goaltender Sam Ersson repeatedly as the Swedish netminder had another rough night between the pipes up until the shootout. Ersson stopped 12 of 17 shots for a .706 SV%. Ersson has let in four or more goals in three out of the six games he’s started, which speak volumes to his struggles’ considering Philadelphia had allowed the fewest number of goals this season prior to Friday’s opening puck drop.
Even though Philadelphia’s managed to keep the puck out of their net the most amongst all 32 teams, the Flyers have fallen behind in four straight contests.
FIRST PERIOD
Zegras nonchalantly attempted a backhand pass through three Blues which got picked off by Jordan Kyrou. The three-time 30-goal scorer for St. Louis flew along the boards and snapped one beating Ersson on his far side. Ersson started the matchup with a .866 SV% and Kyrou’s shot should have been stopped, but it instead gave the Blues an early 1-0 lead, 1:19 into the game.
The miscue by Zegras on Kyrou’s goal was erased as he evened the score just minutes later. Zegras began the rush after chipping the puck past his former teammate in Anaheim, Cam Fowler, then followed the play up ice. Dvorak dropped a pass back to the trailing Zegras who fired a shot through the legs of Jordan Binnington.
Unfortunately, the tie was broken in favor of St. Louis 84 seconds later off another turnover. Travis Konecny tried to connect with Travis Sanheim entering the zone, but Robert Thomas got a stick on it springing him the other way. Thomas turned and found Jimmy Snuggerud at the top of the circle roofing a laser over Ersson’s shoulder. The former first-round pick put a six-game goalless skid to rest while putting his club back in front.
SECOND PERIOD
Philadelphia faced an immediate threat when the second period got underway as Dvorak clipped Colton Parayko up high with his stick. A test between the league’s second-best penalty kill went up against the ninth-best power play. The Blues generated a few chances, but nothing was too serious, and the Flyers were able to keep it a one-goal game.
St. Louis retaliated after not capitalizing on their man advantage and manufactured a dangerous shift in Philadelphia’s defensive zone. As soon as the Flyers got a much-needed stoppage, Justin Faulk rocketed a slapper from the point off the proceeding faceoff drawl adding to the Blues lead.
The Flyers answered right away as Tippett, Dvorak, and Zegras worked hard along the boards to get the puck out to Noah Juulsen. The defenseman’s initial shot took a wild carom to Emil Andrae who put the puck on net where good things happen. Dvorak drove towards the crease and buried his fourth tally on the year and recorded his third multi-point game while continuing to display that he was a solid offseason signing for Philadelphia.
As for Andrae, he’s been a vital contributor for the Flyers’ back end since rejoining the lineup. Andrae has forced head coach Rick Tocchet to list defenseman Adam Ginning and Egor Zamula as healthy scratches over the last five games.
“He’s done a real nice job. I thought he’d played really well,” Tocchet said on Andrae. “He was one of the bright spots tonight. He’ll continue to grow and continue to do the right things. He’s done a nice job for us.”
Andrae’s efforts led to another goal for the Flyers as his slap shot from the blue line was redirected in front by Zegras. Zegras extended his leading points total for the Flyers with 18 – now 19 – on the game tying goal.
“It was a good response for us. We’ve been pretty resilient all year. Definitely need to work on our first periods, but we don’t quit,” Dvorak said.
THIRD PERIOD
It’s never good to turn the puck over or get caught on a line change, but it’s even worse when the goalie can’t bail his team out. That’s exactly what happened when the Blues took advantage of a sloppy rotation of Flyers’ skaters and Ersson let an unscreened shot from Dylan Holloway by him.
St. Louis wasn’t done as Thomas increased the lead back to two with a wrist shot from the slot.
Tocchet turned to his only line having an impact offensively to spark a comeback. Tippett applied pressure, forcing a turnover and then located an open Dvorak to cut the Blues lead to one for the second time.
Tippett boarded the plane for St. Louis with critics ready for him to get traded following Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. He had one point in his last 10 showings and Tippett responded by tying the game two days later at 5-5 for what would be his fourth point of the game.
OVERTIME/SHOOTOUT
No other forwards had a point and with the game heading to overtime, two-thirds of the Tippett-Dvorak-Zegras threesome were out primarily in the extra frame. Zegras got tripped at center ice and couldn’t cash in on the game-winning penalty shot. He did, however, get the best of Binnington for his second attempt on a slick backhand when the game reached a shootout.
That was enough insurance for Ersson to prevent anything else getting behind him. The Flyers are now 4-0 in the shootout this season.
“Erss hung in there. That’s tough to stop three breakaways, so I give him a lot of credit for sticking with it,” Tocchet said. “You know, sometimes things don’t go your way, and you got to stick with it. He’s excellent at breakaways in the shootout. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of room.”
UP NEXT
The Flyers are right back at it and head south to take on the Dallas Stars (11-4-3) later tonight with the puck scheduled to drop at 8:00pm/ET. Philadelphia looks to extend their point streak to five games.
