Flyers hold on to beat Sabres, 3-1, win ninth-straight

Claude Giroux scored twice, and Carter Hart made 38 saves as the Flyers extended their season-long win streak to nine games on Saturday night against the Buffalo Sabres.

Joel Farabee added the third goal as that would be all the Flyers needed as they fought off a pesky Sabres team in route to their nine-straight win despite a less-than-perfect performance in front of the packed home crowd at the Wells Fargo Center.

Alright so like the first period did in fact happen, but someone (not going to name names here) deleted the recap from the first 20 minutes of this one.

Good news, though, nothing exciting happened anyways and we were scoreless after one anyways.

Things were spicier to start the second as Carter Hart was tasked with keeping the Sabres off the board as Sam Reinhart pressed for the first goal but was denied by the Flyers’ backstop multiple times.

That was about all to write home about as both teams really settled into a tight checking game through the first 30-ish minutes with little dangerous action on either end.

Sean Couturier nearly ended the scoreless game with a quick chance from behind the cage with 10:20 left but Carter Hutton locked it down for the Sabres to keep things scoreless.

But Just seconds later the Flyers would break the ice to make it 1-0 for the Orange and Black with Claude Giroux notching his 20th of the season after corralling the loose puck in front to beat Hutton.

With 6:26 left in the second the Flyers nearly had a second goal but Hutton denied Joel Farabee on a quick passing play in the slot. To be fair Hutton had no idea where the puck was but somehow got in front of the Farabee attempt to turn it aside.

The lead wasn’t meant to be, though, as the Sabres would even things up as Dominik Kahun beat Hart to level things at 1-1 with 3:06 left in the period. Not the end to the frame the Flyers were looking for as the lottery-bound Sabres kept hanging around with the Flyers bent on securing their place in the top half of the Metropolitan.

We’d be all square after two with both clubs tied 1-1 after 40.

Early power play for the Sabres to start the third but Hart was there to deny Reinhart again to keep the Flyers from going behind. Rasmus Ristolainen would try from the point, but Hart was there again to deny the Sabres of a go-ahead goal.

With 13:24 left in the third the Flyers would again be shorthanded as Philippe Myers would go off for hooking, giving the Sabres a chance to get the go-ahead goal.

They’d kill it off again, providing some momentum in an otherwise sleepy night.

The moment would pay off as Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux played give-and-go to provide the Flyers a go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 with a little over 10 minute to play.

Voracek provide the feed in the slot as he’s done so many times before and Giroux did the rest to grab his second goal of the night and 21st of the season as the Flyers aided their search of a ninth-straight win.

With 5:11 left the Flyers would get the insurance they’d need as Joel Farabee took advantage of a Sabres mistake to put his club up 3-1 with their sights firmly set on another win as Hutton misplayed one in his own cage.

You just hate to see it.

Desperate to pull closer the Sabres would empty their net with 2:31 left and an offensive zone draw.

Despite the yawning cage, the Flyers weren’t interested in hitting the empty net though things would flare up as Ristolainen took out his frustrations on Justin Braun in the corner with a dirty hit as he got the stick up on a vulnerably Braun.

That would be all, though, as the Flyers put the finishing touches on a 3-1 win over the Sabres to give them nine-straight wins overall.