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Some takeaway from Flyers’ 7-4 win over Sabres

Matvei Michkov had a pair, the power play had a pair, and the Flyers have a pair of wins under Brad Shaw after a 7-4 win over the Sabres on Saturday afternoon.

Posted on by Jason MacNeil

Matvei Michkov scored two, the power play did something twice and the Flyers are now with two wins under the belt since John Tortorella’s dismissal thanks to a 7-4 win over the hapless Buffalo Sabres. It didn’t help with the lottery odds but seeing 13 goals in the last six periods of hockey has been refreshing.

The Basics

First period: 5:27- Matvei Michkov (Travis Konecny, Egor Zamula), 5:56- Jakob Pelletier (Owen Tippett, Ryan Poehling), 10:57- Jack Quinn (JJ Peterka, Ryan McLeod)

Second period: 1:41- JJ Peterka (Jack Quinn, Peyton Krebs), 8:13- Jack Quinn (Ryan McLeod, Owen Power) (PPG), 10:36- Matvei Michkov (Travis Konecny), 14:11- Noah Cates (Tyson Foerster)

Third period: 6:39- Owen Tippett (Olle Lycksell, Jamie Drysdale) (PPG), 10:13- Tyson Foerster (Bobby Brink, Noah Cates), 15:05- Alex Tuch (Ryan McLeod) (SHG), 15:34- Ryan Poehling (Noah Cates) (PPG)

SOG: 32 (PHI) – 21 (BUF)

Some takeaways

Cates breaks streak

Noah Cates has played well but wasn’t being rewarded as much as earlier this season. He finally broke almost a month-long streak, putting the Flyers up 4-3 late in the second. The goal, the fifteenth of the year for the center, came from a bad Sabres play in their own end. Tyson Foerster fed Cates who buried it for the go-ahead goal.

Defensive shuffles

The idea of Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae paired up would scare most people, but in a season dwindling down to a handful of games, interim coach Brad Shaw juggled the defense pairings, seeing Nick Seeler with Travis Sanheim while Cam York (who actually ended up on the ice this afternoon) was teamed up with Jamie Drysdale. Unfortunately York was caught out of position on Buffalo’s first goal, cutting the Flyers lead in half midway through the first period. Drysdale had a decent opportunity on a wraparound late in the first period but was denied. Overall the three pairs did fine most of the game, with most of the blueliners ahead in the chances for category.

To Ersson is human

Sam Ersson has had a rough season. And this game added to it. After having a 2-0 lead, proceeded to make few if any key saves to keep the Flyers lead. Halfway through the game, Buffalo had 10 shots on goal. Seven of them were stopped, so a .700 save percentage is horrid. The third Sabres goal, on the power play, saw Ersson not ready and all out of sorts as Jack Quinn beat him with a nice wrister on his blocker side.

Few whistles, fast-paced game

With both team playing (or not playing) for lottery balls in the draft, the Sabres and Flyers probably couldn’t muster much animosity between them. Instead the teams traded some chances in the first and didn’t engage in any scrums after the whistle. The lone hard hit in the first came when Foerster took a boarding penalty while on the power play. It didn’t look like an awful hit from behind but the Sabres player fell into the boards awkwardly. That certainly didn’t help Foerster’s case.

Foerster did have a handful of chances to score in the first but couldn’t make any of them count. In the third, Foerster let a one-timer go and made the game a bit of a laugher at 6-3. Bobby Brink made a nifty pass to set up the goal.

The one Flyer who seemed to have an axe to grind was Seeler. Naturally Seeler doesn’t have a cruise control setting in his game. He threw a few hard hits and stood up a Sabre or two at the blueline which enthused the Wells Fargo Center faithful.

Michkov’s March Madness

Matvei Michkov missed scoring on his last shot of the Thursday night game against Montreal, missing his first hat trick. However, he was deadly on a two-on-one with Travis Konecny, beating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen clean for his twenty-third goal of the year. It’s his third goal (and could’ve been his fifth goal) since John Tortorella’s departure. But regardless, a strong productive finish to the season should make him not just a candidate for the Calder Trophy but the candidate to win it.

Later in the period, Michkov lost his stick but made a nice defensive play, preventing a pass or shot by sliding on the ice. The forward also got caught on a long shift in the second period and was slow to get back for coverage. Fortunately the Sabres shot beat goalie Sam Ersson but caught the post, keeping things tied up 2-2.

In the second period Michkov again got a shovel pass from Konecny to come down the wing, then roofed a backhander over Luukkonen for his second of the night, this one resembling a quasi-Owen Tippett highlight reel goal over Dallas last season (was it last season?). He is making a case for the Calder people!

Late in the second most Flyers fans watching in person and elsewhere thought they were seeing history as Michkov had another chance coming down the wing. But Luukkonen got enough of the wrister to keep the ice from being littered with hats (the baseball kind, not those big, furry, cumbersome Russian hats).

Two power play goals? In a period??

The Flyers scored two power play goals in this game, the first time since a Jan. 21 contest against Ottawa. The percentage is still horrible, but seeing Ryan Poehling score the team’s seventh of the afternoon with the man advantage was a small bright spot in what has been an abysmal season for that particular special teams.

Pelletier puts one home

Just 29 seconds after Michkov opened the scoring, the Flyers came down on the rush again and made Buffalo pay. This time a nice passing play between Poehling and Owen Tippett resulted in Jakob Pelletier having an empty net. He put it in and finally got his first as a Flyer.

Couturier coming back?

Sean Couturier has played well for the most part the last little while, something that was quite the opposite last season. The fact he’s probably going to end up with his highest point total (yes, a few pandemic shortened years included) since his 59 points in 2019-20. The line was inches from making it 3-1 about a minute into the second period when a nice passing play left Konecny at the doorstep but couldn’t bang it in.

As is often the case, the opposition came up the ice and tied things up when the Flyers looked out of sorts and a bad line change only added to the misery.

Tippett gets in on the action

Feel good stories all over the place this afternoon. Tippett got his twentieth of the season with a nice wrist shot. The goal, also on the power play, broke a three-week string of games with no goal (he last scored March 8 against Seattle). Tippett probably isn’t going to end up with 25 goals to close the season, but he won’t end the year with a 20-game drought.

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