Playing their third game in four nights, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (12-11-4) are home on Sunday evening to host Andre Tourigny's Utah Hockey Club (11-11-4). Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:30 p.m. EST.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
Officially, Sunday's game is the first-ever meeting between the Flyers and Utah HC. For NHL record-keeping purposes, Utah is considered a brand new franchise with a separate history from its predecessors, the original WHA/NHL version of the Winnipeg Jets and the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes. The Flyers and Utah will rematch in Salt Lake City's Delta Center on February 4.
The Flyers enter this game coming off back-to-back performances in which they played well enough to win but were unable to protect third period leads. On Thursday, the Flyers lost in regulation, 7-5, to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
On Sunday in Boston, the Flyers never trailed at any point in regulation. They led 2-0 after one period and 3-1 entering the third period on Sunday, only to ultimately lose in overtime by a 4-3 score.
Utah was also in action on Saturday, capturing a 5-2 road win over the Buffalo Sabres. Utah trailed at the first intermission, 1-0, but went on to score three unanswered goals in the second period on their way to victory. Goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves for Utah while Tourigny earned his 100th win as an NHL head coach.
Here are five things to watch in Sunday's game:
1. MatveiMania is running wild
Flyers rookie right winger Matvei Michkov is coming off a two-goal game in Boston in which he tallied power play and even strength markers in the first periods. In the previous game against Florida, Michkov set up linemate Owen Tippett for two goals within a single shift.
Despite not playing more than 14:39, Michkov has racked up seven points (three goals. four assists) over the team's last three games. For the season to date, the Russian phenom leads all NHL rookies with 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists).
Michkov seems to have found strong chemistry with linemates Tippett (three goals over his last three games and Morgan Frost (four points in his last seven games). With the team holding leads in the third period of recent games, Tortorella has deployed the line sparingly at five on five in the third period.
2. York-Sanheim blueline pairing.
The Flyers' top defense pairing of Travis Sanheim on the right side and Cam York on his left was dominant in stretches of Sunday's game in Boston. They also figured prominently in the scoring.
Reaching the 200-point milestone for his NHL career, Sanheim assisted on a pair of tallies. York redeemed himself for two minor penalties with a goal from one of Sanheim's setups.
York has logged 23-plus minutes of ice time in each of the last two games and has averaged 21:07 for his injury-interrupted season to date. An upper-body injury has limited him to 14 games played to date but he's now fully healthy.
Sanheim, a Team Canada selection for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-off tournament, leads all Flyers players with an average of 25:33 ice time per game. He has posted 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) offensively.
3. Playing with discipline
Tortorella was vocally critical of the officiating after the Boston game. Some of the calls were marginal at best and others were justified. The bottom line is the Flyers have taken too many ill-timed penalties in recent games that proved costly in one way or another.
Over the last two games, the Flyers have faced a whopping 11 shorthanded situations.
Against Florida, the Flyers had their worst penalty-killing game in several years, yielding four Panthers power play goals in five times playing shorthanded. Philly also gave up a 4-on-4 goal after a power play of their own was negated by an interference penalty.
Against Boston, the penalty kill succeeded in navigating five of six shorthanded situations. While the PK itself was a boon, the sheer volume of penalties interrupted the flow of 5-on-5 play after the Flyers had the better of the majority of even strength hockey.
4. Flyers power play
Michkov has been the driving force in why the Flyers have notched a power play goal in back-to-back games. It is also worth noting, however, that the Flyers made a personnel tweak on the PP units the last couple games. Bobby Brink was moved up to the first unit, with Frost moving to the second unit.
Utah is a heavily penalized team on average. They've faced 97 shorthanded situations to date this season, making the team the NHL's third most-penalized team this season. Only the Bruins (100) and San Jose Sharks (99) have faced PK scenarios more times than Utah.
5.Behind enemy lines: Containing Keller
Utah captain Clayton Keller leads his team in scoring with 23 points 26 games and has posted four points (1g, 3a) over his last four matches. The shifty 26-year-old playmaker has topped 40 assists three times in his NHL career to date and flirted with the 50-assist milestone (finishing with 49) two seasons ago.
Keller is a fixture on Utah's top power play unit, along with 20-year-old Logan Cooley. At 5-on-5, Keller has recently been playing left wing on a line with Barrett Hayton (formerly Frost's junior hockey teammate on the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds) and veteran Nick Schmaltz.
