Louie Belpedio scores first career goal as Flyers cruise past Sabres

The Flyers were without one of their best forwards and their number one goaltender. They had lost three straight and were coming off a deflating loss to the Sabres on Wednesday. The odds were not in their favor.

So of course they scored two goals in the first 91 seconds of the game en route to a dominating 5-1 victory over that same Buffalo team. Sam Ersson, who had trouble stopping much of anything shot his way previously, made 21 saves. The Flyers got goals from five different players as eight different players registered a point. Bobby Brink (one goal, one assist) and Joel Farabee (two assists) each led the way. Brink is now tied for the rookie scoring lead with Arizona’s Logan Cooley.

The biggest story of the night, though, came off the stick of Louie Belpedio. Belpedio was appearing in just his ninth career game. He’s up to the most in his career during a season, playing five games for the Flyers after appearing in three games for the Wild over three different seasons. With Marc Staal injured, Belpedio was rewarded with his first extended NHL stint and first game since his one for Minnesota in 2021.

Belpedio would achieve his long-awaited dream of scoring his first NHL goal. It gave the Flyers the 2-0 lead 91 seconds into the first period. After receiving a pass at the blue line, Belpedio quickly fired it to Morgan Frost who shot the puck toward the net. Bouncing off a Sabres defensemen, Belpedio quickly jumped up in the play and sent it into the open net to the left of Ukko Pekka-Luukkonen.

"“Better than I expected, honestly,” Belpedio said about how he felt after his first goal. “It’s exciting, all the guys were happy for me too. That makes it a little better. I’m sure my family and friends will have a couple of text messages on my phone for me so I’m excited to get back and read those.”"

Belpedio later joked that even 10 text messages would make him feel good after this one. Safe to say it’ll probably be a bit more than that. The Flyers didn’t need anything more than Belpedio’s goal as the only blemish on Ersson’s night was a third period shot from the high slot by Henri Jokiharju. It was likely a shot that Ersson should’ve been able to stop, but it’s hard to complain when he did just about everything else right. That’s more of the kind of goaltender that the Flyers are used to seeing.

The Flyers will take the five goals, though, as they were able to spread the offense around. Scott Laughton opened the scoring with his first of the season while Travis Konecny continued his hot start with his ninth goal of the year. Garnet Hathaway tallied the other goal.

It’ll be a quick turnaround as the Flyers will be right back in Philadelphia this evening when they welcome in the Los Angeles Kings before heading out on the road for their California road trip. Cal Petersen is likely to get the start against his former team.