It’s easy to get frustrated when things aren’t going your way. But it was the resiliency that the Flyers showed that allowed them to score three unanswered goals and skate away with the victory over the Canucks.
It was only a minute and a half into the game that Vancouver struck first. Skating into the zone, Kyle Burroughs fired a shot from out wide that appeared to have nicked off the shinpad of Nick Seeler and over the shoulder of Carter Hart. It is certainly another one that he’ll want back. But the deflection off his own defenseman didn’t help.
They say goaltender’s like to face a lot of shots to keep them in the game. But that wasn’t the case in this one. On just their third shot of the game, Conor Garland put the Canucks up 2-0. A Kevin Hayes turnover at the blue line got everything started. Vasily Podkolzin carried it in, spun around, and found the streaking Garland wide open.
He beat Hart on the blocker side, yet another goal that Hart probably will say he should’ve stopped. Both Hart and John Tortorella did feel like Hart was bumped but the Flyers’ head coach said they felt they wouldn’t have gotten the call on it.
That was also Vancouver’s first shot in almost 13 minutes. The Flyers learned in the first period that sometimes dominating the territorial play doesn’t always lead to goals. They had their opportunities as they had 14 shots on net to Vancouver’s four. But they couldn’t capitalize on their chances, including three power play opportunities.
They could have easily let frustration take over just as it has in previous seasons. But they knew they were still in the game and didn’t have to change the way that they were playing.
"“I think that’s what Torts’ message was between the first and second. Don’t change anything. I thought we played a pretty good second period honestly. We were quick upping pucks, really good on the forecheck. We made things happen for ourselves and didn’t really stray away from our game and continued to work and we gotta continue to do that if we wanna win more hockey games.”"
The Flyers will be thanking Hart for his play during the second period. He made one of his biggest saves on a chance by Andrei Kuzmenko at the side of the net. He extended the pad out to make more than a few saves in tight. That came after a turnover behind their own net by Travis Konecny. That save allowed the Flyers to finally get on the board just a few minutes later.
On their fifth power play chance of the game, the Flyers finally connected thanks to Tony DeAngelo. James van Riemsdyk slid one back to DeAngelo at the point. The latter waited for the lane to open up in front before blasting one into the top corner of the net.
While that one came on their own power play, the Flyers decided to score during Vancouver’s as well. Travis Konecny picked off a pass in the defensive zone and had a lane up the middle but decided last moment to bank it off the boards to a wide-open Scott Laughton. And Laughton took care of the rest as he beat Demko with the shorthanded goal on the breakaway to tie the game at 2-2.
"“I knew Laughty had a jump on the guy and honestly I was going there. It was just last second where I just made the read. You know, I made it a little too close for comfort on the offsides but Laughty made a good play to kind of circle in there.” Konecny said."
For the first bit of the third period, it was all Vancouver as both teams were looking to get the go-ahead goal. It was the Flyers who would find it as Travis Konecny scored his third goal in two games. Ivan Provorv sent the puck toward the net as J.T. Miller tried to cut it off. Unfortunately for him, it bounced off his stick and right to Konecny. The latter made a quick move to get around Demko and give Philadelphia the 3-2 lead with 6:07 remaining.
And despite a power play for Vancouver with 1:58 to go, the Flyers were able to hold on for their second straight win. Hart made a few big saves as well as Noah Cates having a big shot block in front. Did they maybe get a little boost from the Phillies clinching the NLDS right before they first scored?
"“It was awesome seeing that final pitch and seeing the fans go crazy when they turned it off and right away they put it back on. It was cool.” Hayes said afterwards."
It’s only two games and there’s plenty of time to go, but after everything that was said about this team coming in, two wins in their first two games is something to be happy about. They’ll have tomorrow off before hitting the road to take on Tampa, Florida, and then Nashville.