Felix Sandstrom earns first career win as Flyers power past Blues

It was clear the Blues came into town with something to prove. Having lost seven straight games, they wanted to show the Flyers that they meant business. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t exactly trend their way. Philadelphia handed St. Louis their eighth loss in a row. And Felix Sandstrom could finally let out a sigh of relief as he registered his first career win as well.

It wasn’t even Sandstrom who was supposed to start this game either. The Flyers ended up sending Carter Hart home this morning due to an illness. Hoping he could nap it off, they instead turned to Sandstrom and called up Samuel Ersson to back him up. Despite the late notice, Sandstrom wasn’t fazed as he made 27 saves on 28 shots.

“We gave him some run support tonight. He made some big saves when the game was still, who knows where it was gonna go. I’m happy for him because he gets a result. He made a couple key saves at key times. It’s a 5-1 game but when your goalie makes a couple key saves, you never know where it turns if those pucks go in.” John Tortorella said on Sandstrom’s play.

The one thing the Blues did do was try to fire each other up early in the first period. Nick Seeler took the invitation from Brayden Schenn who is known to do exactly what he did to bring some energy. Seeler landed more of the punches and ended up with the takedown. Apparently, Robert Bortuzzo didn’t think that was enough, though. He and Zack MacEwen also dropped the gloves shortly after. That one was more of a shoving match, however. The fights were separated by 51 seconds.

“It’s what you love to see. You see the passion of the guys, they care. They want to win so that got us fired up.” Wade Allison about the two early fights.

It didn’t exactly translate to much for the Blues as the Flyers outshot them 18-9 in the first period. There weren’t any goals to speak of, but Philadelphia certainly looked like the better team. It was the second period where things broke open for the home side in a period that wasn’t even their best of the night.

Wade Allison, Travis Konecny, and Noah Cates all scored in the second to give the Flyers a 3-0 lead. Allison, who was engaged from the drop of the puck, had strong positioning right in front of Thomas Greiss. Ivan Provorov, cheating toward the net, fired the puck across the front and it bounced in the air and off Allison.

Konecny, scoring his first goal since October 19th, tipped the puck back to a streaking Owen Tippett in the neutral zone. He returned the favor as Konecny skated across the ice in the offensive zone and fired a shot across his body that beat Greiss on the blocker side. It was a play the two talked about after a similar play earlier in the game.

To add insult to injury, Cates scored with just three seconds remaining in the second period. Scott Laughton cut off a pass attempt from Colton Parayko and found Travis Sanheim at the right faceoff dot. Sanheim saw Cates wide-open at the side of the net and the latter did not miss. It was Cates’ second goal of the season and his first since October 18th.

“Obviously don’t want to be selfish or anything, but defintely when points go your way, you get a goal and add an assist, it’s big. Just for the confidence and whatnot. It’s the play away from the puck with these coaches and this coaching staff. There’s just some things to tighten up there, but you feel a little lighter when you put points away. So that’s big for me and my line.” Cates said after his two-point night.

The Blues were going to be a desperate team in the third period and they finally cracked Felix Sandstrom just over five minutes in. Nick Leddy sent a pass to Ivan Barbashev who smartly left it for Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly then beat Sandstrom to give the Blues a pulse. It didn’t last long, though. 1:22 later, it was Lukas Sedlak who grabbed his first in a Flyers’ uniform off a blast from Nick Seeler at the point that ended up on his stick. He easily popped it past Greiss to restore the three-goal lead.

Owen Tippett put the icing on the cake with just 38.5 seconds remaining. He powered into the offseason zone as his shot went up and over Greiss to give the Flyers the 5-1 final. It was close to the Flyers’ most complete effort of the season. Up and down the lineup, it felt that just about everyone was engaged from the get-go.

“We’re far from having the perfect identity, the perfect game. I don’t even know if that exists. We’re just keeping our heads down. I’ve been saying it the whole year, we’re just working hard, everyone’s buying in. You know exactly what’s expected of you so it makes it easy when you go into the game. It’s just about working hard and playing for the guy next to you.” Travis Konecny said after the win.

The Flyers will look to keep their momentum going as they’ll briefly head on the road to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. They have lost their last five games.