Three Standout Players In Flyers Win Over Avalanche

These three players stood out the most in the Philadelphia Flyers vs the Colorado Avalanche.

Failing to complete the comeback and losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime in their last contest, the Philadelphia Flyers hoped to get back into the win column as they returned home to face off with the Colorado Avalanche. On the other side of things, the Avs were looking to come out of their All-Star Break with a victory while also trying to extend their winning streak to four. Alex Lyon got the nod from Head Coach Alain Vigneault in net for Philadelphia and opposed Philipp Grubauer on the other end of the ice.

For a team that hadn’t played hockey for over ten days, Colorado was very sharp to begin the game. The Avs utterly dominated the Flyers through the first half of the period, holding Philadelphia to zero shots on goal until around the seven-minute mark while creating 11 of their own with 13 scoring chances, as well. Just seeing that, you’d think Colorado had the 2-0 after one, but oddly enough, the hockey gods decided to be kind to the Flyers despite a terrible start. Matt Niskanen and Kevin Hayes each scored goals towards the end of the frame, gifting their team with a two-goal lead going into the second. Lyon was also huge for the Orange and Black during the opening 20, saving all 11 shots he faced.

The Avalanche got some luck of their own in the early stages of the second as Valeri Nichushkin had a shot go off of Justin Braun and into the back of the net, scoring his ninth goal of the year to cut the Philadelphia advantage in half. Joel Farabee got it back a few minutes later, cashing in on an excellent cross-ice pass from Sean Couturier to make it a 3-1 contest. Colorado wouldn’t be denied, though, getting themselves back within one before period’s end thanks to a power-play goal from Mikko Rantanen.

Philadelphia did a tremendous job at suppressing Colorado’s offensive opportunities for a good chunk of the third, keeping them without a shot through the initial eight minutes. Farabee would reward the Flyers for their efforts, netting his second tally of the night to put them ahead 4-2. Andre Burakovsky scored, later on, to make things interesting, but Philly held their ground and walked away from the Farg with a 6-3 victory as Hayes and Scott Laughton potted shorthanded and empty-net goals to seal it.

I’m going to go with a line as my three standouts in this one because I thought the Farabee-Couturier-Jakub Voracek combo was just that good tonight. Although they started out slow, as was the case with every Flyer not named Lyon, the trio kept at it and eventually worked their way towards a combined six-point performance. Farabee, Coots, and Jake accounted for all of Philadelphia’s goals at 5-on-5 and led all of the other Flyer combinations in Corsi, Fenwick, Expected Goals, Scoring Chances, and High Danger Scoring Chances For percentages at the same level of play with Score and Venue adjusted, per Natural Stat Trick. It was great to see this group bounce back from a rough go of it in Pittsburgh and play well against a talented Avalanche squad.

The Flyers are now 28-17-7 on the year. Next game is Monday against the Detroit Red Wings.