Eleven days ago, the Flyers suffered a humiliating loss to the winless San Jose Sharks that left hockey fans across the globe tearing up with laughter. Now, they’re winners of four straight games, pulling off a massive 4-3 overtime win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights Saturday afternoon. Sean Couturier netted the game-winner one minute into OT.
The Flyers are now 9-7-1 on the season and sit behind only the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division standings.
The Basics
First period: 15:29 — Tippett (Sanheim, Atkinson)
Second period: 00:59 — Foerster (Sanheim, Tippett), 04:01 — Karlsson (Marchessault), 15:00 — Marchessault (Theodore, Eichel), 15:25 — Walker (Seeler, Couturier), 19:05 — Marchessault (Stone, Theodore)
Third period: No goals
Overtime: 01:00 — Couturier (unassisted)
Takeaways
Sean Couturier the OT hero
After a thrilling 60 minutes of regulation time, Couturier scored his biggest goal of the season to help the Flyers pull off the massive upset. After an ugly turnover by Golden Knights star forward Jack Eichel in his own zone, Couturier gathered the loose puck and fluttered a bouncer on net that went through Logan Thompson’s five-hole.
Couturier may have been attempting to hit Travis Konecny with a quick feed on the doorstep, but a goal’s a goal, right?
After a year-and-a-half-long absence, Couturier sure seems to be back to his old self. The 30-year-old has posted four goals and 13 points through 15 games, and it’s probably not a coincidence that his return to the Flyers is directly coinciding with the club’s strong start to the new campaign.
Flyers score not one, but two (!) power-play goals
The Flyers entered Saturday afternoon’s tilt on a 0-for-26 skid on the power play over an eight-game span dating back to October 28. But against all odds, the drought finally ended with an Owen Tippett power-play marker in the first period.
On the Flyers’ first power-play attempt of the day, Tippett fired a loose puck past Vegas netminder Logan Thompson for his seventh goal of the season. Travis Sanheim created a juicy rebound with a one-timed blast from the point, and Tippett was in the right place at the right time.
Tippett has now netted five goals in his last four outings after logging just two goals in the Flyers’ first 13 games of the season.
Less than a minute into the middle period, Tyson Foerster potted his first goal of the season to give the Flyers two consecutive successful power plays. A Sanheim point shot ricocheted off the end boards and found Foerster in the low slot, who flung the puck off the post and in.
It was a matter of time before the Flyers started getting more luck on the power play, and they got it Saturday against arguably the best team in hockey.
Travis Sanheim has another big game
Don’t look now, but Sanheim posted his fourth multi-point game of the season. Sanheim registered a pair of primary assists — both on the power play — and continued to take on heavy minutes as the Flyers’ No. 1 defenseman. He saw 26:01 of ice time Saturday afternoon and currently ranks third out of all NHL defensemen with 26:02 of average ice time per game, behind only John Carlson (26:23) and Drew Doughty (26:15).
Sanheim has been a revelation since the start of the season. He is far exceeding everyone’s expectations with 16 points through the first 17 games of the campaign and, at this rate, may be a legitimate All-Star candidate.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.
