The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Chicago Blackhawks looking for their third straight win.
Entering their second game of a five game home-stand, the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Chicago Blackhawks hoping to earn their ninth win of the season.
Former Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning returned to face his old team for the first time, having two points (1 Goal, 1 Assist) in 13 games coming into the matchup.
Brian Elliott started in-net after an 18 save performance in relief of Calvin Pickard in Monday’s win over the Arizona Coyotes. Corey Crawford opposed Elliott for the Blackhawks. Crawford had a 3-5-0 record, a 3.07 Goals-Against Average, with a .904 save percentage before today’s matinee.
The game kicked off with Elliott making a big save on forward Alex DeBrincat, as the Blackhawks applied some pressure on the Flyers in their defensive zone. Philadelphia looked sluggish to begin the period, struggling with turnovers and just going through the motions. Claude Giroux would wake them up, scoring the game’s first goal and his seventh of the year.
Travis Konecny had a breakaway opportunity just a minute or two after, and drew a hooking call to put the Flyers on the game’s first power-play. There was plenty of pressure brought on by the Orange-and-Black, but Chicago eventually killed it off. Elliott was huge for the team, making 13 saves in the first period.
The second period began with the pace of play starting to pick up. The Flyers finally applied some consistent pressure in the Blackhawks zone in the form of a Konecny partial breakaway and a Wayne Simmonds rebound attempt, but Crawford stood his ground. Oskar Lindblom went on the take a tripping penalty, providing Chicago with their first power-play opportunity of the game.
Seconds after the power-play ended, Sean Couturier netted his sixth goal of the season to put the Flyers up 2-0. Giroux was given an assist on Couturier’s goal for his second point of the game. Dale Weise drew a holding penalty not long after, and gave the Flyers a chance to extend their lead to three on the man advantage. Philadelphia’s top power-play unit applied pressure, but still couldn’t find the back of the net as the Blackhawks killed the penalty off. The Flyers had the shots-on-goal advantage after two periods of play, leading 22-21.
The Blackhawks received an early power-play opportunity thanks to a Giroux hooking minor to start the third. This wouldn’t cost the Flyers, as they killed off the penalty. Couturier scored his second goal of the game later on after deflecting the puck off of Manning passed Crawford to increase the Flyers lead to three. Giroux would draw a penalty of his own, giving the Flyers a power-play opportunity with a three goal lead late in the third.
Nolan Patrick negated the man advantage with a minute to go after hooking Duncan Keith, giving Chicago about a minute of power-play time of their own. After play returned to even-strength, Chicago pulled Crawford with about 2:30 remaining. Patrick scored an empty-net goal, and the Flyers won 4-0.
Elliott was stellar in-net for Philadelphia, making all 33 saves he saw for his and the teams’ first shutout of the season.
The Flyers are now 9-7-1 on the season. Next game is Tuesday against the Florida Panthers.