Postgame 5: Flyers Soar Past Ducks, 6-0

The Philadelphia Flyers crushed the Anaheim Ducks, 6-0, on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center. Samuel Ersson recorded a 22-save shutout, while Travis Konecny racked up four assists.

Playing in front of a jazzed up home crowd, Philly came out storming in the first period. The Flyers generated the game's first three shots on goal on their way to eight of the first nine. Meanwhile, the Ducks iced the puck four times.

Scoring for the second straight game, Morgan Frost (9th goal of the season) scored from the left slot off a Konecny setup at 6:48. Owen Tippett drew the secondary assist. It was Frost's fifth goal over the last 11 games.

The Flyers went to the game's first power play at 9:44 as Anaheim was caught with too many men on the ice but the Flyers never generated much pressure.

Frost was tripped by Ryan Strome at 17:05 when going back to retrieve a puck in the defensive zone. The Cates unit took the first shift but Philly was unable to get set up. With the other unit out, the Flyers made it 2-0.

On the rush, former Ducks defenseman Jamie Drysdale skated toward the net as he received a pass from Konecny and then tucked the puck through the five hole (PPG, 2nd).at 18:11. The assists went to Konecny and Frost.

A skirmish broke out in the left corner of the Ducks' defensive zone with 39.7 seconds left on the first period clock. Two minors aside were called: Hathaway and Laughton for the Flyers, Fabbri and Mason McTavish for Anaheim.

Another skirmish ensued at the buzzer as the Flyers took exception to Ross Johnston face-washing Travis Sanheim and bumping him at the side boards in the neutral zone. Johnston received a roughing double minor while Sanheim got two minutes for roughing. First period shots on goal were 14-7 Flyers.

Holding a 2-0 lead, the Flyers opened the second period back on the power play. The Flyers put one unscreened shot on net. Through seven minutes, shots on goal were 4-2 Flyers.

The Ducks went to their first power play at 8:29 as Frost was called for tripping in the defensive zone. As the penalty expired, Konecny chirped Cutter Gauthier as a whistle stopped play for an Anaheim offside. Gauthier seemingly declined Konecny's invitation to drop the gloves.

On his next shift, Gauthier received clean checks from Tippett and Rasmus Ristolainen, much to the delight of the Wells Fargo Center crowd. A couple of shifts later, Ristolainen lined up Gauthier in the corner and doled out another body check.

The Flyers' lead grew to 3-0 at 16:12. Konecny sent a saucer pass over to Tippett (12th) who fired it home. The lone helper went to alternate captain Konecny.

The game's third after-the-whistle skirmish broke out when Laughton took exception to Frank Vatrano bumping Sanheim behind the net. Both Vatrano and Laughton received roughing minors, setting up two minutes of 4-on-4 manpower.

While there was still a lot of energy and emotion in the second period, the play was a bit sloppy at times. Second period shots on goal overall were 7-5 Anaheim (19-14 Flyers through 40 minutes). Faceoffs were tied at 22-22 through two periods.

The Flyers' lead grew to 4-0 at the 24-second mark of the third period as they scored on the rush after a breakout pass by Sanheim. Hathaway sent the puck to Ryan Poehling, who moved in and beat John Gibson. The assists went to Hathaway and Sanheim.

On the next shift, Konecny nearly struck again but Gibson turned him away at the doorstep. Another get-together at 2:44 led to 4-on-4 play as Matvei Michkov and Radko Gudas got roughing minors behind the Anaheim net.

At 6:35, emotions ran high again. The Flyers got another power play from the skirmish and scored their second power play goal of the game. Konecy's shot bounced off the end boards and Michkov (PPG, 13th) finished it off for a 5-0 lead. The secondary assist went to Drysdale at 7:36.

The lead grew to 6-0 at 8:55 on a 5-on-5 goal, as Hathaway (4th) hustled to the net and backhanded a Poehling rebound past Gibson.The secondary apple was collected by Laughton.

Final shots on goal favored the Flyers, 30-22.

The Flyers went 2-for-4 on the power play. They were 1-for-1 on the penalty kill

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny
15 Olle Lycksell - 14 Sean Couturier - 39 Matvei Michkov
21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York
5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale

33 Samuel Ersson
[82 Ivan Fedotov]

PP1: Ristolainen, Foerster, Cates, Brink, Michkov
PP2: Drysdale,Tippett, Frost, Konecny, Laughton

Scratches:77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 35 Aleksei Kolosov (healthy), 86 Joel Farabee (healthy).

TURNING POINT

The Flyers set the tone very quickly in the first period. In a statistical oddity, Frost's first period tally was his fourth career game-winning goal against Anaheim.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Lycksell in the lineup: Playing for the first time since Dec. 21, Flyers winger Olle Lycksell had a pair of shot attempts.

2. Line combos in flux: With Lycksell entering the starting lineup for Philly, Joel Farabee was a healthy scratch. His consecutive games played streak ended at 216. For the most part, the Flyers went with combinations that were used in the third period of Thursday's game against Dallas after in-game jugging. Most notably, the trio of Tippett, Frost and Konecny was put together in the latter one-third of the Dallas game and stayed together against Anaheim.

4. Spotlight matchup -- Gauthier vs. Drysdale: Anaheim left winger Gauthier (three shots on goal) received the fully expected welcome to Philadelphia from the home partisans in Saturday night's game. The fans greeted him with boos before the game in warmups and then every time he stepped on the ice during the game. Meanwhile, Drysdale sent a greeting of his own to his former team, scoring a power play goal to open a 2-0 lead in the first period. He jumped into the play multiple other times as the game progressed.

5. Behind Enemy Lines: Mason McTavish & Leo Carlsson: The Ducks two highly touted young centers McTavish and Carlsson finished with zero points on the night. McTavish totaled two SOG (-1 with 15:51 TOI) while Carlsson was held without a shot on goal (-1 with 14:01 TOI).