Sean Couturier Comes Up In The Clutch In Flyers Shootout Win vs Toronto

The Philadelphia Flyers kicked off the first half of a back-to-back by taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank Arena.

Following a 3-2 overtime over the Montreal Canadiens on home ice, the Philadelphia Flyers hit the road to face the Toronto Maple Leafs for the second time in a week. Toronto came out on top the last time these two teams met, defeating the Flyers in an 11 round shootout. Philadelphia hoped to avenge that loss in this one and tie the season series at one apiece with another game to go after tonight’s matchup.

Brian Eliott got the nod from Head Coach Alain Vigneault, opposing Fredrick Anderson for the Leafs. Anderson was red-hot coming into this matchup, not allowing more than one goal in his previous two starts. Philadelphia had to bring their offensive A-game for that reason and create as many dangerous chances as possible to give the Danish goaltender a lower chance at being able to make the save.

Philippe Myers carried on with his excellent play since coming up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, scoring his second goal in as many games to put the Flyers ahead, 1-0. A pass from Joel Farabee deflected off of James van Riemsdyk, finding Myers near the top of the slot, who went top-shelf on Anderson to give his side the lead. Oskar Lindblom followed it up with a beautiful deflection goal on the power-play, doubling the Philadelphian lead to two after 20 minutes of work while also showing Dave Hakstol that he might be better than Jori Lehtera at this whole hockey thing.

Toronto applied a solid amount of pressure in the Flyers zone through the second and eventually found the back of the net as William Nylander set up Travis Dermott with a pass to the slot, allowing the Leafs defenseman to snipe the puck by Elliott to make it a 2-1 game. The Maple Leafs continued to put shots on Elliott after the fact, but the 34-year-old goaltender stood his ground to keep the Flyers lead at one heading into the third.

Anderson made a series of tremendous saves on the Flyers fourth-line to keep the Leafs within one to start the stanza, shutting down each member of the combo in back-to-back-to-back fashion. Toronto went on to build on that momentum, tying the game at two thanks to a goal from Nylander. Sadly, Auston Matthews did an Auston Matthews thing, finding his fellow forward with a terrific feed from behind the net for the tap-in tally.

Both teams traded chances as the third played out, but neither could find twine, sending the contest to extras for the second straight game. Overtime wasn’t enough to find a winner, so the Leafs and Flyers went to a skills competition, where Sean Couturier won it for the Orange and Black in the third round. This was Coots’ second straight game-winner in the same amount of contests, as he helped defeat the Canadiens in overtime with a clutch goal, too.

The Flyers are now 9-5-2 on the year. Next game is Sunday against the Boston Bruins.