The Philadelphia Flyers were in hopes of earning their 34th win of the season as they hosted the Ottawa Senators at the Wells Fargo Center.
Looking to ignite a two game winning streak coming in, the Philadelphia Flyers played host to the Ottawa Senators in their third and final meeting of the year.
Interim Head Coach Scott Gordon once again went with Brian Elliott as the starter in-net, who opposed Craig Anderson. Anderson had a 3.53 Goals-Against Average with a .903 save percentage entering the matchup. The Flyers couldn’t let themselves underestimate this Senators squad, especially given the importance of this game to their playoff hopes.
Philadelphia didn’t have the best of start to the contest, racking up four turnovers early on to open the matchup. Thankfully, Elliott was able to keep things even with a couple of big saves, including one on defenseman Mark Borowiecki. Ottawa did end up solving the journeyman goaltender on a deflection goal from Chris Tierney, putting the Flyers down by one halfway through the period. The Orange and Black created a good amount of pressure to take the shots-on-goal advantage, but couldn’t find a way to lead where it mattered most as the score stayed 1-0 after 20 minutes.
Oskar Lindblom changed that to begin the second, deflecting a Shayne Gostisbehere shot off of his foot to tie the game at one for the Flyers. The play may have been flukey, but this continued a great stretch of showings from the young, Swedish forward and gave him 13 goals on the season as well.
Michael Raffl went on to put Philadelphia ahead by one, cashing in on a sweet pass from Nolan Patrick in front of the net to make it 2-1. Raffl broke a seven game goal-less streak in the process and also reached his 70th career tally in the NHL. Scott Laughton added to the lead with a goal of his own late in the second, giving Philadelphia a 3-1 advantage over the Senators through two periods of play.
The Senators received a power-play mere minutes into the third after Radko Gudas committed a holding penalty, but couldn’t do anything on it as they eventually ended the opportunity with a penalty of their own. Filip Chlapik would put Ottawa within one late in the stanza, because what’s a Flyers game without a little drama, right? Anyways, Philadelphia held on to earn the victory and won the season series with the Sens as well.
Philadelphia took care of business against Ottawa and now sit three points out of a Wild Card spot because of it. The power-play unit still needs work, going 0-for-3 on the night, but it was clear they missed Jakub Voracek to help get things set in the offensive zone. Raffl stepped up in his void at even-strength, netting two points in the game, and was one of the players on the ice who brought the most effort too. It’s not too often you see a fourth liner lead the team in scoring for a game and it was good to see the veteran forward nab a goal in his 400th game as a Flyer.
The Flyers are now 34-27-8 on the season. Next game is Thursday against the Washington Capitals.