Michkov stays hot, Flyers defeat Predators for 3rd straight win under new coach

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Flyers won their third straight game under new coach Brad Shaw, 2-1 against the Nashville Predators at Wells Fargo Center on Monday.

Shaw was promoted from assistant on Thursday after Philadelphia fired John Tortorella.

Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale scored for Philadelphia (31-36-9), and Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov each had two assists. Ivan Fedotov made 28 saves.

Philadelphia is six points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Montreal has three games in hand.

In six games as linemates, Michkov has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) during a six-game point streak and Konecny has eight points (two goals, six assists), getting a point in five of the six games.

"I think they're realizing they're a little on the same wavelength as far as how they can create offense once they're crossing the offensive blue line, and they've shown a patience and ability to get open for the other guy," Shaw said. "That's a really nice thing to see because they’re making something out of nothing sometimes. They're keeping the offense going later, longer than the defense can withstand it and they're getting some glorious chances because of it."

Michkov and Konecny had been tried on a line earlier in the season but it didn't last, in part because Konecny wasn't comfortable playing left wing as a right-handed shot. Michkov is in that spot now after beginning the season at right wing even though he's a left-handed shot.

"Just starting to find a nice rhythm," Konecny said. "[Sean Couturier] complements really well with us, keeps us in check. We just have a tendency to look for one another, and it's only going to get better and better."

Zachary L'Heureux scored for Nashville (27-39-8), which lost its third straight game and for the eighth time in its past 10 (2-7-1). Justus Annunen made 16 saves.

"I thought we battled hard," L'Heureux said. "I don't know what the shots were at the end, but they've got to be close to double at least. We had our chances and unfortunately couldn't capitalize."

Poehling put the Flyers ahead 1-0 at 8:50 of the second period with his seventh goal in 10 games, one-timing a centering pass from Konecny.

"If you look forward from the start of the year, we've lost guys, so players got to step up," Poehling said. "I'm playing a lot more. I've been playing well. ... I'm getting the bounces right now and making the most of them."

L'Heureux tied the game 1-1 at 13:14. Predators forward Michael McCarron cut around Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae as he drove to the net. Fedotov made the initial save, but L'Heureux scored on the rebound, lifting a backhand from the edge of the crease under the crossbar.

It was his fifth of the season and first since Dec. 21.

"I thought he's been really good the last couple of games," Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. "... When he's skating and he's on top of things, like he was tonight, he's going to get opportunities to score. The recipe for him, for me, is when he's skating, he's effective. When he's not, he's not that effective. And he skated tonight."

Drysdale responded 34 seconds later to put the Flyers ahead 2-1 when he found a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle and scored with a one-timer.

"The one that really hurt was we tied it and 34 seconds later, the things that sort of haunted us a lot of the year where we kind of turn the puck over and we lose coverage in our own zone and make a soft play in front of our net, and we fall down 2-1," Brunette said. "And when goals are hard to come by, the margins are tiny, and they're tiny right now, but in saying all that, I thought we played a really good game. I thought we didn't give up a whole lot of room, we had the puck a lot, and we just didn't capitalize on the chances we had."

NOTES: The Predators played without forward Colton Sissons, who is week to week because of a lower-body injury, and forward Jonathan Marchessault, who is day to day because of a lower-body injury. Brunette said Marchessault will not play at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. ... Nashville went 0-for-1 on the power play, ending their run of games with at least one power-play goal at six. ... Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway had one shot on goal and three hits in 10:40 of ice time in his return to the lineup after missing 15 games because of an upper-body injury. He also played his 600th NHL game. ... Shaw is the third Flyers coach to win his first three games, following Tortorella (3-0-0, 2022-23) and Paul Holmgren (4-0-0, 1988-89). ... Nashville defenseman Jordan Oesterle had two shots on goal in 14:15 of ice time in his 400th NHL game.