The Philadelphia Flyers have been one of the best teams in transition this season and that was on full display at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
Owen Tippett’s beautiful spin-o-rama backhand goal stole the show — and rightfully so — but it was just the cherry on top of a night full of highlight-reel goals by the Flyers.
It was a dominant effort from the Orange and Black in their return to Philadelphia after sweeping a three-game road trip. They outshot the Stars 14-1 in the first period en route to a 43-15 shot advantage in the 5-1 victory.
It looked as if the Flyers may not be rewarded with a goal for their first-period efforts, though. Then, in the blink of an eye, the Flyers moved the puck out of their own zone and into the back of the net to open the scoring at the 19-minute mark.
Sean Walker, who is making it more and more difficult to fathom trading at the deadline, smartly moved the puck up the wall off a dump-in and made himself available for a pass in the middle of the ice. Tyson Foerster shoveled the puck up along the wall to Joel Farabee, who found Morgan Frost with a nice feed.
Frost delivered the Flyers’ first highlight-reel play of the night with a terrific between-the-legs pass to the streaking Walker who made no mistake about it on the breakaway.
I mean, come on.
That was the first of two assists for Frost, who was controversially named the first star of the game by Charlie O’Connor, with Tippett earning second-star honors.
Tippett has been impressive over the past few weeks for the Flyers, and that continued on Thursday night. Before his backhand spin-o-rama in the third period, he showed off his shot with a snipe off a faceoff win by Sean Couturier.
The winger was quick on the draw to find the loose puck and load up on a shot that beat Jake Oettinger top shelf.
Despite dominating in shots on goal (30-9) and shot attempts (51-39) through two periods, the Flyers only had a 2-1 lead. The Stars made it a closer game than it should’ve been with their lone goal of the night midway through the second period.
But after two failed power plays in that middle frame, the Flyers struck on the man advantage early in the third period.
Now, Cam Atkinson’s goal may look like just a good, hard-working goal on first glance. The Flyers moved the puck around the zone with Atkinson batting home the loose puck in front.
Travis Sanheim’s rebound was chipped up into the air by Frost, and Atkinson got his stick on it to deflect it into the back of the net.
It may have been a goal in a dirty area, but the puck movement prior to Sanheim’s shot opened up the defense a bit and left Atkinson alone in front.
OK, now we can get into the good stuff.
Scott Laughton earned a penalty shot on a breakaway midway through the third period with a chance to put the Flyers up by three. They say a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey — which is wrong, I’d obviously rather be up by two goals than one goal, but I digress — and Laughton gave the boys some breathing room with a patient penalty shot goal.
Laughton isn’t necessarily known for his goal-scoring ability, and he’s actually been known to get stopped on breakaways a bit too often, but he outwaited Oettinger and kept the puck moving forward (or sideways) on the penalty shot marker.
Of course, Tippett put the final nail in the coffin with his gorgeous goal.
It was the second highlight-reel goal for Tippett in as many games after the winger scored a beauty in St. Louis on Monday night.
All in all, the Flyers had several highlight-reel plays on Thursday night that shouldn’t be overlooked. Tippett obviously is getting all of the accolades for his goal-of-the-year candidate, but the Orange and Black have more than a few players playing at the top of their game right now.
The Flyers are a fun team playing great hockey and scoring beautiful goals. Enjoy the ride.
