Samuel Ersson does his part as Flyers win third in a row

Don’t look now, but the Flyers are suddenly doing well.  They left the friendly confines of Philadelphia two weeks ago to go on a five-game road trip; the last three of which were in California. The team lost Carter Hart due to an injury right before Christmas. Since then, the team has had to rely on Samuel Ersson in net.

Ersson, who was chased out of the net in his debut in the Carolina game, before Hart came in and got hurt, has been stellar. If you take away the five goals he gave up in the first 30 minutes against Carolina, he has only given up six goals since. He has ripped off three victories against the San Jose Sharks, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Anaheim Ducks. In four games, he has a 2.90 GAA with a .905 save percentage. And again, take away the Carolina game, his stats are even better!

Last night, against the Ducks, Ersson had his best game yet. He was 40 seconds away from his first career shutout in just his fourth career game. Ryan Strome. He stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced to earn the win.

Flyers beat the Ducks 4-1 in a resounding win

And it is not just him. The rest of the team has rallied around him. For a team that has struggled to pick up goals, they have scored no less than four goals in four straight games and no less than three in seven straight. Against Anaheim, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Travis Konecny, and Scott Laughton all scored.

Let’s break this down further. These are the stats from the California trip from the point scorers:

Player                           Goals                                 Assists                   Total Points

Travis Konecny                       4                                                    1                                        5

Tony DeAngelo                        1                                                    3                                        4

Noah Cates                              1                                                    3                                        4

Owen Tippett                            2                                                     2                                     4

Scott Laughton                      2                                                      2                                      4

Joel Farabee                             1                                                    1                                       2

Kevin Hayes                             0                                                     2                                      2

Cam York                                  0                                                      2                                      2

James van Riemsdyk            0                                                       2                                     2

Nick Seeler                               0                                                       2                                    2

Morgan Frost                         1                                                        0                                     1

Ivan Provorov                          0                                                        1                                   1

Rasmus Ristolainen             0                                                         0                                    1

That’s 13 players who’ve registered a point in the last three games. Even Risto finally got a point…his first of the season! Konecny has scored in six straight games and has scored in all but two of the games the Flyers have played since Dec. 1. Five players have scored more than four points in three games. That’s the consistency that this team needs. It also shows a lot of growth from some of the younger players, like Cates.

If this team is starting to get healthy and starting to buy into Coach John Tortorella’s system, this could be a sign of things to come. While they are a long shot to make the playoffs after the rough November and first half of December they had, it looks as if the Flyers are starting to show who they could be.

The Flyers return home on Thursday to face off against the Arizona Coyotes, who they lost to earlier this year in overtime. Then, they will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday to end their two-game homestand.