Flyers hand the Oilers their first loss of the season

The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 tonight at Rodgers Place in Edmonton. In what was an absolute battle, the Flyers, with the help of Carter Hart and Cam Atkinson’s two goals, move to 3-1-1 on the season as they hand the Oilers their first loss of the season.

In the beginning of the game, it seemed like it was going to be all Edmonton. The Flyers seemed to be on their heels for the first 3-5 minutes, especially when Ristolainen ended up going to the box on a suspect high sticking penalty. The Flyers were able to kill it off and got a powerplay for themselves that seemed to turn some momentum.

At 7:22, Claude Giroux took a missed shot off the boards by Travis Konecny and wrapped it around the net for his fourth goal of the season and for the first time in his career, putting up points in the first five games of the season. He had a 10-game point streak to open the season back in 2016-17, but hadn’t registered a point in the opening game.

The Flyers continued to attack and about three minutes later, Nicolas Aube-Kubel does a wrap around himself where a scrum was in front of the net and Nate Thompson was able to bury the puck for his first of the season.

About 30 seconds later, Tyson Barrie got the puck coming down from the point through the slot. Nick Seeler went to defend but slipped, leaving Hart all slone. Tyson buried the shot backhand behind Hart. The game was back and forth for the next eight minutes or so, similar to that of a tennis match.

At 18:40, Zack MacEwen took a boarding penalty and the Flyers went back on the PK for the third time of the period. A minute later, Connor McDavid scored off a redirection off of Justin Braun that he was just trying to send across the ice. Just when you thought the period was going to be done, how we, at 19:59 Cam Atkinson scored his fifth of the season off a beautiful flip by Travis Sanheim that went off of Nurse’s chest.

Atkinson was able to put it between his own skates, to his stick, and right to the net to give the Flyers the lead going into the intermission. Looking at the bench, Claude Giroux was super pumped up and even fist bumped the boards to a Flyers fan behind him.

At 0:54 in the second period, Zach Hyman wasted no time putting the puck into the back of the net to bring the game to even. The Oilers won a few board battles to keep the play alive before the goal. From there, the game flowed nicely for the rest of the period with both teams playing a high tempo game.

In the third period, the FAB line struck again with Atkinson scoring an absolute laser of a goal through Koskinen’s five-hole from the right side faceoff circle. This was his second two-goal game of the season. The Flyers eventually put it away by an empty netter by Sean Couturier. It was a hold your breathe moment as Konecny could have been offsides but the desicion was a good goal on the ice.

The Flyers took 34 shots and ended up with five goals for the third time this season. Hart stopped 34 pucks on 37 shots. The Flyers also dished out 27 hits and blocked 26 shots, including one that went up Ristolainen’s stick and hit him above the eye. The special teams units were also key as the Flyers PK went 3-4, only giving up the one powerplay goal.

Hart was the star of the game as he came home for the second time and looked like the Hart of two years ago. He battled for pucks, position and kept his team in this game. Justin Braun and Ivan Provorov were also really good tonight with Braun replacing Ellis tonight in the lineup. And Atkinson was a man on a mission as he continued his campaign of goal scoring.

The Flyers are back on the ice tomorrow night in Vancouver for the second of their back to back in Western Canada.