Hayden Hodgson’s first NHL goal powers Flyers past Blues

The Flyers were going to need to bring their A-game, something they haven’t been able to do consistently, taking on a high-paced St Louis Blues squad. The Blues were coming off a big 5-2 win after a string of three straight losses. For Philadelphia, they couldn’t complete a comeback against Detroit, falling 6-3.

The Blues had the better of things the last time these two teams played. Despite tying that game early in the third period, St Louis scored three unanswered goals to take the 4-1 victory. It was Jordan Binnington’s first win in over a month.

So for the Flyers, they wanted to show a much better effort. And they did that in the first period. The Blues didn’t have their first shot of the game until almost 12 minutes into the first period. Philadelphia, however, scored on their third shot of the game.

After both team’s had power play chances in the opening minutes, it was Travis Konecny who took over. Skating through the middle of the ice, he took it to the outside if he had all the space to work with. Robert Bortuzzo backed off as Konecny drove in wide and he wired a shot over the left shoulder of Binnington. That was Konecny’s first goal since March 10th, though he had six points in between.

Hayden Hodgson, playing in his NHL debut, grabbed the secondary assist, marking his first point in the league. Philadelphia seemed to have the better of the chances for a majority of the opening period. Owen Tippett, appearing in his third game for the Flyers, almost had his first with his new team. But he did help set up their second goal with excellent vision.

Showing incredible patience, Tippett carried the puck in along the left side and sent a pass through the middle of the zone to Cam York. York fired one of net that was stopped by Binnington. But Patrick Brown followed up the rebound and grabbed his fourth of the season. Zack MacEwen had created some chaos in front as he drove the net, tripping over Binnington in the process. No harm, no foul though as there was no challenge from the Blues.

After all was said and dumb, the first period ended in favor of the Flyers. Holding the Blues to just three shots, there wasn’t much else you could ask for from Philadelphia. They were looking for their first road win since December 29th and that was the kind of opening 20 minutes they needed.

The Blues didn’t have to wait long to get their first shot of the second period, though it was easily handled by Martin Jones. Offensive zone time wasn’t a problem for St Louis in the opening period as the Flyers gave the Blues a good chance to get more going on a penalty by York less than two minutes in.

And they made it count as Vladimir Tarasenko grabbed his 21st of the season. It was quick puck possession between David Perron, Ryan O’Reilly and Tarasenko. They didn’t give the Flyers much time to think as the puck was off of each of their sticks within seconds. Tarasenko was left all alone at the right side of the net and had all the time in the world to pick his spot. Jones had robbed Tarasenko of a goal moments prior to that.

All of a sudden, the Blues had found their skating legs. Getting into a track meet with this team is not something the Flyers want to do. Jones had to make a couple of big saves, including a breakaway chance by Brandon Saad that just trickled wide of the net. He was forced to scramble into action on a few follow up chances as well.

The Flyers found themselves back on the power play as Tippett, who was having a great game to that point, drew a holding penalty on Robert Bortuzzo. There was a lot of good puck movement as they spent a large majority of time in the offensive zone. But Binnington stopped the few shots they put on net.

Konecny, who had been feeling it from the start, got on the scoresheet once more. Pavel Buchnevich turned the puck over in the offensive zone. York found Kevin Hayes sneaking into the zone. He spun around and found a streaking Konecny who blasted the one timer that slowly tricked through the pads of Binnington and over the line. A noticeable game for Konecny indeed.

MacEwen was ticketed for tripping shortly after the goal. The Flyers have had issues giving up goals immediately after scoring them. The Blues spent almost all of the two minutes in the offensive zone and fired a few shots on net. David Perron beat Martin Jones, but not the post. Jones had to be the best penalty killer there as his teammates were gassed.

But just as good as Jones had been up to this point, his mistake behind the net led to the Blues second goal of the game. Trying to corral the puck behind the net, Jones got caught in no mans land as the puck went under his stick. He made a valiant effort to get back to the net, but Alexei Toropchenko had other plans. He grabbed his second career goal off the quick feed from Logan Brown.

A near Mikkola and Farabee fight led to some open space and 4-on-4 action. It was Brayden Schenn who then took down Hayes, giving Philadelphia a 4-on-3 towards the end of the second. Mike Yeo decided to take his timeout with 1:17 remaining. Nothing doing though as the Flyers would take a 3-2 lead into the third period.

The third period has not been Philadelphia’s strongest so it was going to take a large effort to get their first road win in almost three months. The Blues weren’t making it easy as Jones was tested multiple times. It felt like the Flyers were pinned into their zone for the first half of the period. But when they finally got a chance, they made it count.

Hayes, using his body to shield the puck away, got the puck in on Binnington. It was Hodgson who found the rebound and buried it for his first NHL goal. A huge goal put the Flyers up 4-3 with less than eight minutes remaining. It was Hodgson’s second point of the night.

It was Farabee who iced the victory with the empty netter to make it 5-2 with 2:40 remaining. The Flyers grabbed their first road win in quite some time but won’t have time to bask in this one. They’ll head right to Colorado to take on the Central-leading Avalanche.