Jakub Voracek leads Philadelphia Flyers to win over New Jersey

The Philadelphia Flyers played visitor to the New Jersey Devils in the second half of back to back contests.

Suffering an overtime defeat in their last game, the Philadelphia Flyers hoped to turn the tides and avoid a two game losing streak as they hit the road to take on the New Jersey Devils.

Cam Talbot received the start between the pipes, opposing Cory Schneider for the Devils. Schneider had a 3.23 Goals-Against Average and a .898 save percentage coming into this matchup. The Flyers couldn’t afford to take this game lightly, as a second straight loss would likely be the final blow to their already bleak playoff chances.

Philadelphia struggled with the Devils aggressive forechecking to begin the game, spending a good amount of time in their own zone just minutes in. Luckily, New Jersey couldn’t muster up a whole lot of offense during that time and the game stayed tied. The Flyers went on to receive a five minute power-play after a flat-out dirty hit from Kurtis Gabriel on Nolan Patrick, but could the Orange and Black capitalize? NOPE. The Devils killed off the lengthy penalty with relative ease while the Flyers continued to look out of sorts on both sides of the puck.

Philly did receive another man advantage later on and had a better result this time around as James van Riemsdyk ripped a shot from the slot to make it a 1-0 game. Claude Giroux made a nice pass to set him up and the 6’3 winger did a good job of getting his stick on a rolling puck for the goal. JvR would go on to score again in the period and give the Flyers a 2-0 lead after one. The team was able to work through their horrid start to the contest and didn’t let past mistakes phase them as the period went along.

More from Flyers News

• 5 Philadelphia Flyers training camp battles to watch
• Brent Flahr gives updates on Matvei Michkov, other Flyers prospects
• Flyers could strike trade for blossoming Senators star
• Ex-NHLer: Flyers experiencing the “Keith Jones effect”
• Mark Recchi to be inducted into Flyers Hall of Fame

Damon Severson put the Devils on the board in the early stages of the second, ramming home a big rebound from Talbot to put his team within one. Jesper Bratt tied it up minutes later, cashing in on another Talbot rebound for his eight tally of the year. The Flyers went right back to playing down to their competition and lost their lead because of it.

Luck seemed to be on their side, though, as a Devils defender accidentally put the puck in his own net with mere seconds to go in the stanza, giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead heading into the third. Travis Konecny was awarded the goal, which was his 19th of the season.

Sean Couturier quickly regained a two goal lead for Philadelphia, scoring less than a minute in for his team leading 26th goal. Schneider definitely could’ve made the save, but hey, a goal’s a goal. Ivan Provorov made it 5-2 soon after and the Flyers ended up defeating the Devils by a score of 6-3 thanks to an empty netter from Konecny.

I can’t lie, the horrible start and second period had me a bit worried, but the Flyers were able to take care of business and keep their playoff dreams in tact for another day with this victory. Jakub Voracek led the charge with a three assist performance and was all over the ice through the entire matchup. JvR had a nice game himself, too, scoring two goals and an assist in the game. Philadelphia also didn’t let their emotions ride high when things got testy, unlike New Jersey, and must be commended for not losing focus of getting a win.

The Flyers are now 31-27-6 on the 2018-19 campaign. Next game is Sunday against the New York Islanders.