Flyers vs. Red Wings recap: Nine in a row, party like it’s 1995!

Bill Clinton was the president, DVD’s were just invented and a gallon of gas was $1.15. Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny were not born yet and Madonna was on top of the billboard charts.

This was the world the last time the Flyers had a nine game winning streak, which they have now done for the first time since April of 1995 with a 1-0 overtime victory in Detroit against the Red Wings.

Anthony Stolarz got the nod in his 2nd career start in the orange and black, his first ever on the road. Shayne Gostisbehere was replaced in the line up by Michael Del Zotto; Ghost had blocked a shot in Saturday’s game vs. Dallas and was still feeling the effects today. After being out of the lineup for over a month, Boyd Gordon, who made his return yesterday was a healthy scratch today in favor of Taylor Leier.

The puck dropped on the possible last game ever in Joe Louis Arena for the Flyers (barring a playoff match up against Detroit); it started off well as just one minute in Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg took an interference penalty to give the NHL’s number one ranked power play an early chance.

However the Flyers failed to capitalize on the early chance and wasted about half the power play trying to set up in the Detroit zone. Ivan Provorov did a nice job walking the blue line towards the end of the man advantage, channeling his inner Gostisbehere.

Anthony Stolarz was tested early and often, but stood on his head to negate any chances generated by the Red Wings. The Flyers defense was not doing Stolie any favors with turnover after turnover.

Travis Konecny also continues to look fantastic in his rookie season, each game making it look like the Flyers hit the lottery drafting him late in the first round. Even when Travis isn’t showing up on the score sheet, he is making fantastic plays like this one.

With 2:40 remaining in the first period Luke Glendening interfered with Jakub Voracek and earned himself a trip to the penalty box, giving the Flyers their second power play of the period. While they did not score, the Giroux unit looked fantastic, generating shot after shot.

The Flyers did not start off the second period very well, allowing Detroit almost two straight minutes of continuous zone control. Pierre Edouard Bellemare had blocked a shot with his hand and after the Flyers iced the puck Bellemare stayed on the ice to win a key faceoff.

Ivan Provorov continues to build on his recent string of great play with monster work on the penalty kill — despite being paired with Andrew MacDonald. Provorov has come a long way from his early season struggles such as his game against Chicago in October.

Another Russian with strong play of recent is Roman Lyubimov, who made some nice plays during on the penalty kill in the first period. This play was not a nice one though and was a very avoidable penalty.

The Gudas-Streit pairing has not looked the best this game, however Radko Gudas demonstrated what a good penalty is by stopping a sure goal by Detroit.

Radko happens to fall into the net, pushing it off the moorings. Luke Glendening pushes Gudas into the net, just before Dylan Larkin fires the puck into the empty net. An argument could be made that regardless of the net coming off the moorings the puck would have crossed the line, and while they very well might be the case the Flyers lucked out here.

At the eight-minute mark of the third period Michael Raffl and Xavier Ouellet dropped the gloves, well at least Ouellet did. The confused look you might have had on your couch is the same look Raffl had on his face after this fight. This was sparked by what looked like incidental contact between Steve Ott and Raffl, after Ott skated into Raffl and fell over.

Ouellet earned himself an instigator penalty after his “fight” with Raffl, giving the Flyers a golden opportunity halfway through the third. The Flyers had everything but the finish, which could have been the story line for this game.

After the scrum and subsequent fight, Steve Ott still felt the need to stir the pot. We can only imagine he is telling Wayne Simmonds to check NHL.com here where Steve ranks #221 in points and Wayne ranks #11.

There is not much more you could have asked for from Anthony Stolarz, as he made every save when called upon.

To overtime we go!

Travis Konecny whom was already have a very strong game, created this golden opportunity:

Then Brayden Schenn happened...

Just 24 hours after his hat trick Schenn scores the OT winner with a terrific play started by him and from a beautiful feed from Ivan Provorov. Provorov earned this helper after having a very strong game on both ends of the ice.

Anthony Stolarz also picked up his first career NHL shutout!

The Flyers look to extend their winning streak to ten games, Wednesday night in Colorado. Hopefully with two full days off they will get some much needed and deserved rest.