The Philadelphia Flyers hope to build off perhaps their best effort of the season when they host the Florida Panthers on Monday.
The Flyers trounced the Anaheim Ducks 6-0 on Saturday in a much-needed performance after the team went 0-3-1 in its previous four games. Travis Konecny registered four assists while Samuel Ersson made 22 saves to record his second shutout of the season.
“It helped that the crowd was really into it tonight,” Konecny said, after setting up goals by Morgan Frost, Jamie Drysdale, Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov. “It was awesome, great atmosphere. We just played hard. We’ve been playing hard and not getting results. So, it was good to get one tonight.”
Philadelphia had not scored more than two goals in any of its previous four games, including Thursday’s 4-1 defeat to Dallas in which the Flyers were outplayed by the Stars basically from start to finish.
“I just thought we played a hard game,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “As I said after the last game (against Dallas), we haven’t played many bad games. I just wanted us to answer the right way. We got off to a start, score the first goal. We talked about checking better; we checked better. And I thought (we) played a good hockey game.”
It helped that Ersson was steady despite missing some time of late due to a nagging lower-body injury.
“I think my game is in a good place,” Ersson said.
While the Flyers earned two points on Saturday night, the Panthers earned only a single point – and barely accomplished that – in their 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins.
Florida’s Sam Reinhart scored the tying goal with 2.8 seconds left in regulation, only to watch Boston record the game-winner on a lucky deflection off the stick of a Panthers player with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime.
The Panthers finished with 43 shots on goal, compared to only 18 for the Bruins.
“We played well. We’re over 100 in shot attempts,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “Credit to the guys for staying right on it until the final second or two.”
Reinhart finished with two goals for the Panthers, giving him three goals in the last two games and four in the past four contests. Evan Rodrigues also scored for Florida – his first goal since Dec. 5.
“I think that’s the best game we have played in quite some time,” Rodrigues said. “You want the result, want the two points, but this is not one we hang our heads in or sulk around.”
The Panthers will now play six of their next eight games away from home, beginning with their second visit of the season to Philadelphia. Florida posted a 7-5 victory over the Flyers on Dec. 5 as Matthew Tkachuk notched a goal with four assists.
The Flyers trailed 3-0 in that game before surging ahead 5-4 early in the third period, only to surrender the game’s final three goals.
“It’s not a recipe for success down the road,” Tkachuk said after that contest. “But I guess we found a way to get this one. It was crazy.”
–Field Level Media
