Philadelphia Flyers shutout by Fleury, Golden Knights 1-0

The Philadelphia Flyers played their second home game of the 2018-19 season against the Vegas Golden Knights.

After earning their second win of the season against Ottawa on Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Golden Knights three games after defeating them in the regular season opener. Brian Elliott opposed Marc-Andre Fleury in-net. Elliott was 1-2 coming into the game and hoping to rebound from his 8-2 loss against the San Jose Sharks in his last start.

Travis Konecny was good to play in this game after taking a puck to his right leg in practice on Friday. The teams exchanged chances through the first seven minutes of the first period, but neither could net themselves a goal. The Flyers received the game’s first power-play opportunity on a William Carrier holding penalty. Their top power-play unit spent a good amount of time in Vegas’ zone, but couldn’t beat Fleury. Later in the period, Fleury absolutely robbed Jordan Weal of a sure goal. Jon Marchessault took a penalty soon after and the Flyers had another chance to take the lead. Fleury again stood tall, and made ten saves in the period for the Golden Knights.

Elliott was tested on a shot from Max Pacioretty in front of the net early on in the second period, but the puck caught the post. He made another big save just before Travis Sanheim took a hooking penalty, putting Vegas on the power-play for the first time in the game. The Flyers killed it off and later on Jori Lehtera took a tripping minor putting the Golden Knights back on the man advantage. Scott Laughton had a prime shorthanded, breakaway chance but Fleury said no. Laughton lost an edge after the save and crashed into the boards hard. It took him a while to get off-the-ice and went to the locker room. Fleury continued to commit more treachery on the Flyers after they killed the penalty, making an unreal glove-save on Claude Giroux. The Flyers had the shots on goal advantage to end the period, leading 20-15 for the game.

Laughton didn’t initially return to start the third, but came back a few minutes into the period. Vegas controlled play early as the Flyers didn’t register a shot on goal until Fleury made a save on Sanheim about halfway through play. Brayden McNabb leveled Oskar Lindblom with a high hit into the boards and no penalty was called. Lindblom was slow to get up and did not return to the game after going to the locker room. Later on, Wayne Simmonds took a hooking penalty but the Flyers prevailed killing their third penalty of the night. With just a 1:25 to go, Sean Couturier made a costly turnover in his own zone and Cody Eakin cashed in for the game-winning goal. Fleury again robbed Giroux with 40 seconds left in the period, and was lights out all afternoon.

Elliott made 20 saves on 21 shots of his own, but the Flyers offense couldn’t give him any goal support due to Fleury standing on his head. The Flyers are now 2-3 on the season. Next game is Tuesday night at home against the Florida Panthers.