Postgame RAV4: Resilient Flyers Earn Another Comeback Win

For the fifth time this season, the Philadelphia Flyers overcame a third period deficit to earn a win when all was said and done. They've done it twice against the St. Louis Blues. Both wins over the Blues saw Philly overcome multi-goal deficits.

On Thursday at Xfinity Mobile Area, the Flyers roared back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat St. Louis in overtime, 3-2. Travis Sanheim (2nd goal of the season) netted the winner in sudden death.

Justin Faulk (5th) gave the Blues an early first period lead. Faulk soon struck again (PPG, 6th) for a two-goal edge. Rodrigo Abols (1st) narrowed the deficit to 2-1 in the second period. Tyson Foerster (5th) blasted home the tying goal in the third period.

Dan Vladar settled in brilliantly after a bit of a rough start. He finished with 27 saves on 29 shots. Joel Hofer made 25 saves on 28 shots in a losing cause.

The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. They were 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.

First period synopsis

Pavel Buchnevich had a bang-bang scoring chance on the game's first shift. Vladar made the save. Faulk gave the Blues a 1-0 lead at 5:31. His snap shot from the point found the net behind Vladar with traffic in front. The assists went to Oskar Sundqvist and Nathan Walker.

Two shifts later, Jake Neighbours tested Vladar one-on-one. The Flyers goalie stepped up to keep the deficit at one goal.

The Flyers went to the game's first powerplay at 6:58. Colton Parayko went off for hooking. Philadelphia generated decent puck movement but didn't have any Grade A chances.

Zegras took an offensive zone hooking penalty at 11:02 as he attempted to forecheck behind the net. St. Louis retrieved the puck off a dump-in. Neighbours thread a pass through Nick Seeler to Faulk. The defenseman scored his second goal of the game for a 2-0 lead. The other assist went to Jordan Kyrou.

Shots: Flyers 12 - Blues 9

Faceoffs: Flyers 8 - Blues 11

Notable:

• The Flyers didn't have a bad process overall -- 5-2 edge in high-danger chances, 29-14 shot attempt edge -- but found themselves trailing by two goals.
• St. Louis blocked nine Flyers shot attempts.
• Christian Dvorak put three shots on net in the opening period.
• The first Faulk goal was not unstoppable. The second one, off the power play seam pass, was not on the goalie.

Second period synopsis

Rick Tocchet and Todd Reirden changed two of the three defensive pairings to start the middle frame. Emil Andrae moved up a pairing along Jamie Drysdale. Nick Seeler was paired with Noah Juulsen.

The Flyers cut the gap to 2-1 at 17:57. Zegras elusively maneuvered the puck along the right side boards to put it down low. Tippett made a quick centering feed and Abols turned it into a goal. The assists went to Tippett and Zegas.

Emil Andrae lost a puck battle and took a tripping penalty at 18:47. The Blues took 1:13 of carryover power play time into the third period.

Shots: Flyers 9 (21 overall) - Blues 10 (18 overall)

Faceoffs: Flyers 5 (13 overall) - Blues 9 (20 overall)

Notable:

• The middle frame was one of momentum swings.
• As the Flyers applied forechecking pressure, the Blues started to turn over pucks. Meanwhile, the Flyers gave up a little more space than they'd like but Vladar had the answers.
• Solid period for the Flyers' fourth line.
• Second period scoring chances were evenly split at 10-10.

Third period synopsis

Vladar and the Flyers killed off the remainder of the Andrae penalty. With play back at 5-on-5 Parayko broke up a developing Tyson Foerster scoring chance.

Zegras emerged from an offensive sideboard battle and drew a tripping penalty on Pius Suter at 7:06. On the ensuing power play, Zegras had two glorious scoring chances. First, after Cates won the power play's initial faceoff cleanly, Zegras blasted a one-timer off the crossbar from the right circle. Later, Zegras had a point blank chance that went off Hofer's glove, hit the post and stayed out.

Foerster tied the game at 2-2 at the 11:49 mark. Strong forechecking work down low by Cates and Travis Konecny started the sequence. Andrae feathered a pass to Foerster for a one-time blast from near the left dot. The assists went to Andrae and Konecny (10th assist of the season).

In the final minute of regulation, the puck took a weird hop off the end boards past Hofer. Konecny had a wide open net but shot the bouncing puck wide. The game went to overtime for the fourth time in the last five games.

Shots: Flyers 5 (26 overall) - Blues 7 (26 overall)

Faceoffs: Flyers 6 (19 overall) - Blues 8 (28 overall)

Notable:

• With ever-increasing confidence, Andrae was very assertive, jumping into plays.
• Scoring chances through regulation were 35-22 in Philly's favor.

Overtime synopsis

The Blues continuously controlled the puck for the first two minutes. It took two tough Vladar saves on Schenn and one ten-bell stop against Kyrou to keep the game going. Tippett had a chance at the other end.

Finally, Konecny sprung Sanheim and Couturier on a 2-on-1 rush. Sanheim elected to shoot and ended the game. Konecny and Couturier earned the assists.

Shots: Flyers 2 (28 overall) - Blues 3 (29 overall)

Faceoffs: Flyers 2 (20 overall) - Blues 1 (29 overall)

Flyers Starting Lineup

Trevor Zegras - Christian Dvorak - Owen Tippett
Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov - Sean Couturier - Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers - Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen

Dan Vladar
[Samuel Ersson]

Postgame Rav4 (Rav4 Things Revisited)

1. Start on time

Slow starts have been a problem for the Flyers, especially of late. On Thursday, the Flyers had a nervous moment right off the bat. The overall flow in the first period wasn't bad but Philly nevertheless had to chase the game yet again.

2. Restoring defensive structure

In their previous two games, the Flyers misplaced the defensive execution that enabled them to shut down Leon Draisaitl and nearly do the same to Connor McDavid. After allowing a combined 10 goals to the Blues and Stars, the Flyers needed stronger defensive execution in the rematch with St. Louis.

3. More puck possession, higher-quality shots

The Flyers had to bend at times but had a lot of overall puck possession and a healthy number of scoring chances.

4. Revised Cates line

Foerster's line with Cates and Konecny stepped up huge to produce the tying goal in the third period.