Joel Farabee took his benching against the Devils seriously. Since then, he has a point in all but two games. His 17 points in 19 games rank second on the team in that span. He added two more goals on Friday night as the comeback kids did it again. It was the second game in a row when the Flyers returned from a multi-goal deficit.
Neither Minnesota nor Philadelphia generated a ton early on. That’s why Nic Deslauriers and Pat Maroon dropped the gloves again with under six minutes to go in the first period. It’s the second time this season that the two have fought. And something like that is used to help generate energy for each side. Nothing came of things for the rest of the period, but things picked up in the following two periods.
It wasn’t the way the Flyers wanted to start the second period. Just 51 seconds in, Marcus Johansson put the Wild on the board. It came with some controversy as Johansson had closed his hand over the puck shortly before that and passed it up from the defensive zone. There was no penalty call as eventually, Minnesota took control after Cam York was unable to control it at the offensive blue line. Johansson would fire a shot on net that deflected off York and Drysdale on the way in. It's tough to stop if you're Carter Hart.
Joel Farabee Responds
If you happened to catch the pregame article, Farabee was highlighted as someone who needed to get going in terms of scoring. He had been playing well with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny, but he wasn’t scoring. It had been seven games since he scored a goal. He did have six points in that span. He responded against the Wild, though.
A little under three minutes later, Farabee got the first of his two goals. York was able to start the counterattack from his zone, sending Couturier forward. From there, Couturier found Konecny, who skated into the offensive zone. He sent a pass through the skates of Jon Merrill over to Farabee. The latter took care of the rest from the right slot.
It wouldn’t be until overtime when Farabee would finish things off for the Flyers. And it would come via the power play. Cam Atkinson, who hasn’t been able to find the back of the net since November, drew the key penalty in the extra period. It wasn’t smooth to start as Jamie Drysdale lost the puck at the blue line, sending Eriksson Ek the other way. Drysdale turned on the burners and was able to knock the puck away at the last second.
When the Flyers came back the other way, Egor Zamula found a lane and fired the shot on the net. It was deflected by Farabee for Philadelphia’s fourth consecutive game with a power play goal. Zamula has four points on the man advantage since being moved to the unit. He’s helped give the unit a different look and knows how to get his shot through traffic.
PHILLY JOEL OT GOAL. #PHIvsMIN | @FarabeeJoel pic.twitter.com/32caJSbf9X
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 13, 2024
Tippett Stays Hot, Foerster Breaks Drought
Minnesota looked like they would run away with the game in the third period. They scored twice in 2:50 to take a 3-1 lead. The first was a goal that Carter Hart would love back. Ryan Hartman fired an innocent shot from a tough angle below the left faceoff dot. Hart couldn’t cover the post enough to stop it. Matt Boldy put the Wild up by two with a one-time from the right side of the ice.
It took about five minutes for the Flyers to respond, and it came from an important source. Tyson Foerster has the best shot on the team when he uses it. It had been 16 games since he saw a puck in the net. Doing all of the other things right should help the youngster breathe a sigh of relief that he was able to score.
And it was his patented snipe shot that cut the deficit to one. It was a cross-ice feed from Scott Laughton that Foerster wasted no time shooting. If he can use that kind of shot more often, he’ll find himself in the goal column more often.
As for Tippett, he has goals in three consecutive games and is one off of his career-high of four straight games with a goal. This one came less than two minutes after Foerster’s goal. It was another cross ice pass that set this one up. Down in the offensive zone, Konecny fired it almost to the left point, where Tippett skated in and fired the shot by what may have been a screened Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Flyers don't have much time to celebrate as they are immediately off to Winnipeg for the second half of a back-to-back. The Jets have been hot and are well rested. Energy is going to be a factor in this one.