The Philadelphia Flyers have been on a roll since the Olympic Break, and their sweep of the state of California only added to it, as they defeated the San Jose Sharks by a score of 4-1.
The victory was their third in a row, fifth in their last six games, as it also extended their unbeaten run to six games and pushed their road winning streak to seven.
Dan Vladař was brilliant as always, making 24 saves, en route to his 23rd win of the season. The Flyers got goals from Owen Tippett, Christian Dvorak, Travis Sanheim, and Noah Cates, with the latter two coming on empty netters.
FIRST PERIOD
The matinee didn’t start off on the best foot offensive as both teams struggled to create much of anything. There were several penalty minutes involved, however, as Garrett Wilson dropped the gloves with Ryan Reaves to start the game, as well as 3 combined power plays that went 0-for.
Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett had some dangerous chances on their first penalty kill, but it was an otherwise quiet period for two teams looking to make in-roads in their respective playoff pushes.
Shots were tied at 6-apiece as Dan Vladař and Alex Nedeljkovic stopped whatever was thrown their way.
SECOND PERIOD
Fortunately it didn’t take long to get things rolling after the intermission as the Philadelphia Flyers opened the scoring just 2:26 into the middle frame. Tippett made no mistake with a laser past Nedeljkovic for his 24th of the season. Trevor Zegras found him off the rush, before he made a move to get past Nick Leddy, and then deposited a shot glove-side past the goaltender.
On San Jose’s 3rd power play of the game – courtesy of a delay of game minor from Emil Andrae – they tied things up after Dmitry Orlov finished off a nice passing play from the slot at the 13:12 mark. The Flyers lost their bearings as 2 players were pulled in by Macklin Celebrini along the boards, which allowed Orlov to sneak into the slot unmarked for hi 3rd of the season.
While the game opened up a little offensively, it was the physical play that was front and centre. Noah Cates dropped the gloves with Barclay Goodrow, while on the power play, as he came into the defense of Zegras, who took a big hit from the latter. Which was then followed by a scrum in the dying seconds involving Garnet Hathaway and Nikita Grebenkin – all the while, Konecny and John Klingberg were jawing at one another endlessly.
Heading into the intermission, the score was tied at 1-apiece, with the Flyers holding a slight edge in shots at 17-13.
THIRD PERIOD
In a shocking turn of events, the Flyers power play capitalized early in the third period, putting an end to their 0-20 slump, after Christian Dvorak wired a shot from the face-off dot past Nedeljkovic’s at the 1:47 mark.
It was a great entry into the zone that was spearheaded by Zegras, before Matvei Michkov and Konecny recorded the assists on Dvorak’s 14th goal of the season. Michkov’s assist was his 100th career point.
Up by a goal, the Flyers were assessed a minor penalty, giving the Sharks a great chance to tie things up. Despite having the puck in the offensive zone for the entire 2 minutes, Vladař came up with several big stops to preserve the lead for the time being – and they were also aided by Celebrini missing the net on a couple occasions.
With the Sharks’ net empty, Travis Sanheim iced the game with a full-length shot attempt with 1:12 remaining. The Canadian Olympian picked off a pass from his Team Canada teammate, and took his chances with the empty net, which resulted in his 8th of the season.
Then 36 seconds later, Cates scored another empty netter, to completely seal the victory, as it secured their 3rd straight win, as well as sweeping the California road trip en route to a 7th straight road win.
UP NEXT
The Flyers host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena as they continue their playoff push. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm ET.
