Jakub Voracek’s OT Game Winner Pushes Flyers By Blues

The Philadelphia Flyers finally got a road victory, doing so in OT vs the St. Louis Blues.

Aiming to break a four-game road losing streak following losses to the Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, Vegas Golden Knights, and Carolina Hurricanes in recent weeks, the Philadelphia Flyers squared-off with the reigning, defending, undisputed, Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. On the other side of things, the Blues hoped to extend their current winning streak to five while also vying to earn their 13th win in their last 16 games. Brian Elliott received the start from Alain Vigneault, opposing Jordan Binnington on the other end of the rink.

Goaltending was the name of the game for each side through a majority of the opening frame. Both Elliott and Binnington were able to shut down a couple of dangerous chances the Blues and Flyers created in the opposing zone, combining for 21 saves in the first period alone, with Elliott stopping a majority of them with 13. One of them did end up allowing a goal as Philadelphia had a lapse in coverage on the penalty kill, leaving Justin Faulk wide open near the bottom of the left circle to easily score his fourth goal of the year and put his side up 1-0 after one. Philippe Myers was at fault for the defensive blunder, in my opinion, using an overly aggressive, Andrew MacDonald-esque starfish move in an attempt to take the puck away from Alexander Steen but left Faulk uncovered in the process and, well, you know the rest.

After surviving an early-period onslaught from the Blues to begin the second, the Flyers applied some pressure of their own in the middle of the stanza and eventually cashed in on it. Tyler Pitlick had his wrap-around shot deflect off of a St. Louis defender and into the back of the net, tying the game at one apiece with his fifth tally of the year. Philly continued to put the heat on Binnington in the minutes following Pitlick’s goal and went on to find another as Michael Raffl capitalized on a fat rebound near the side of the crease and the Orange and Black suddenly found themselves with a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

Travis Konecny put himself on the board less than a minute after the puck dropped, scoring a man advantage goal to extend the Flyers lead to three. Michel Therrien’s double net-front presence scheme worked to perfection here, as Claude Giroux set up James van Riemsdyk for a beautiful, between-the-legs, tip pass to TK, who went ahead on finished off the tic-tac-toe play. St. Louis controlled the stanza from then-on, scoring two goals to tie everything up and sent this game to overtime, where Jakub Voracek put a nasty dangle on a Blues defenseman and went top-shelf on Binnington to win it for the Fly Guys.

What a game and what a win from the Flyers. I can’t lie, I was slightly worried when St. Louis stormed back to knot everything up in the third, but Philadelphia kept their composure and, for the second straight game, beat a very good team in extras.

The Flyers are now 25-16-6 on the year! Next game is Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens.