The Flyers made history against New Jersey tonight, unleashing a flurry of three goals in 26 seconds to break a franchise record, and turn what was a tied game into a lopsided contest.
Midway through the first period, Sean Couturier won a puck battle along the wall and delivered a pass to Matvei Michkov that sprung the Russian phenom on a breakaway from the blue line. That then allowed Michkov to finish coolly through the five-hole of Jake Allen, and start the oncoming barrage with 7:54 remaining in the first period.
Immediately after, Noah Cates sauced a sweet feed over to Tyson Foerster just off the ensuing faceoff, and Foerster ripped home a one timer that would extend the Flyers’ lead to two, just nine seconds after Michkov had given them the advantage. It marked back to back games with a goal for Foerster, but he wasn’t done there.
After a neutral zone turnover, Foerster took another Cates feed just upon entering into the offensive zone and snuck a fairly routine shot just under the arm of Allen. That made it three goals in just 26 seconds, and two in 17 for the aforementioned Foerster.
The home crowd erupted over and over, while public address announcer Lou Nolan struggled to get through the parade of tallies that just seemed to keep coming.
Those were the three quickest goals the Flyers have scored in franchise history, and Foerster’s back-to-back tallies were the fastest by a single player in Flyers’ history since Jeff Carter’s two goals against the Thrashers in 2008.
On the night that the Flyers honored the late Bernie Parent, the Flyers decided to have their best stretch of the season, unleashing a landslide of goals that completely left New Jersey overwhelmed, and turned the tide in a hotly contested divisional matchup. For a team that has at times struggled to get quality chances in abundance, it was a welcome sight to see the Flyers convert in bunches the way they did in the first period against the Devils. Heading into the game, the Flyers were 28th in the league in average team goals per game, with just 2.63 per game in regulation. In fact, the Flyers had only scored three regulation goals in a game in nine out of their 19 contests.
This outburst was a welcome departure, and is a good showcase of the high-end skill that this team does possess. Making these stretches a habit would make an already stingy team just that much more dangerous.
