Tippett has hat trick, assist to boost Flyers to win against Avalanche

DENVER -- Owen Tippett had a hat trick and an assist, including the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Colorado Avalanche 7-3 at Ball Arena on Friday.

Matvei Michkov had two goals and an assist, and Denver Barkey had a goal and had an assist for the Flyers (24-17-9), who are 2-0-1 in their past three games. Samuel Ersson made 32 saves, including stopping all 17 shots he faced in the first period.

Philadelphia scored a season high in goals and went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.

“We scratched and clawed. It's a tough game,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “That's a tough team to play against, and big efforts -- 'Mitch,' like I said, 'Ers' was really good for us, ‘Tip.’ We seized the moment.

“Tonight, there was about four or five guys, I'm not going to mention [which], who stood on the bench and said some key things. Usually we're a fairly quiet bench, but the guys that were talking usually don't talk that much, and it was really inspiring for me to hear them say that.”

Parker Kelly, Victor Olofsson and Cale Makar scored, and Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas each had two assists for the Avalanche (34-6-9), who have lost four of five (1-2-2). Mackenzie Blackwood made 13 saves.

“I'm not going to be critical of our team for the first period, just because we come out of it down 2-0,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “But I liked our first period a lot, and a lot of things we did we talked about going into the game, and then same thing with the second. So you got 40 minutes under your belt where you're playing real well, confidence is high, and then you come out and make a lot of bad mistakes and do some strange things at the start of the third period that cost you, right?

“I don't know what happened at the start there, mismanaging the puck and then just not heading to the right spot. So, I mean, the start of the third was horrible.”

Tippett put Philadelphia in front 1-0 at 15:02 of the first period. After his initial shot was blocked by Sam Malinski, the puck came back to Tippett, who moved around Malinski in the right face-off circle before scoring with a wrist shot past the blocker.

“It's the time that he does it. Like he's a big-time player. He makes big-time plays at the right time when we need it,” Ersson said of Tippett. “And he's that guy that can score from anywhere. He just doesn't need much, and you give him the finger, he'll take the whole hand. And that's what he did today.”

Barkey extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 18:57. Michkov fed Barkey in the right circle from down low, and he sent a wrist shot to the far side.

Kelly cut it to 2-1 at 7:17 of the second period when he picked up the rebound of Jack Ahcan’s shot and backhanded it over the left leg of Ersson.

Olofsson tied it 2-2 at 10:29, scoring with a wrist shot from the left circle to the upper right corner after taking a no-look drop pass from MacKinnon.

“This team is so good. They're going to make a huge push to come back, and they did,” Ersson said. “How we dealt with it, the team just kept believing in ourselves. Again, the third period is huge. It's so mentally strong from the whole team to kind of put an effort after last game (a 5-4 overtime loss at the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday) and all that.”

The Flyers responded 32 seconds later to take a 3-2 lead at 11:01 when Bobby Brink chipped a loose puck over the glove of Blackwood from the top of the crease.

Makar tied it 3-3 at 12:12. After Brock Nelson won a face-off in the left circle, MacKinnon fed Makar, who skated into the right circle and scored with a snap shot.

“It felt like we had all the momentum coming out of the second,” Makar said. “Obviously, staying in it, getting three goals, and then I felt like we were going to have a good start to the third. I don't know if we were just looking for offense and nobody wanted to play defensive or what.

“It seemed like we weren’t really into it at times. Came out flat and just not working hard and pushing guys off the puck. A couple bounces that hit the back of our net."

Tippett put the Flyers back in front 4-3 at 56 seconds of the third. Sean Couturier picked off Josh Manson’s pass in the neutral zone and sprung Tippett, who kept the puck on a 2-on-1 with Barkey and scored from the left dot to the glove side.

“I just liked our mindset tonight, understanding who we're playing against and how tough it was going to be, and [it was] just a full group effort,” Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “Ers played amazing. Kept us in it early when you're trying to find your legs, your lungs. And then I thought the guys just beared down when we needed to, and really happy to see us pull that out.”

Michkov then made it 5-3 at 2:00. He scored with a redirection over Blackwood’s glove off Emil Andrae’s pass from the left point.

“Obviously, we know the momentum these guys get at home,” Tippett said. “We knew we couldn't sit back, and we wanted to attack right away. And I think those two quick goals really helped us kind of build confidence and get momentum.”

Tippett completed the hat trick on a short-handed breakaway to make it 6-3 at 10:24. He intercepted Makar’s pass high in the defensive zone, skated in on Blackwood and scored through the five-hole.

As for what was going through his mind on the play, Tippett said, “Not much. Obviously, big point in the game, trying to kill those penalties off. I guess I saw Makar on my back, so I knew I didn't have much time."

Michkov scored into an empty net at 16:53 for the 7-3 final.

NOTES: Tippett scored his second career hat trick and became the fifth Flyers player in the past 20 years to have one that included a short-handed goal. … Michkov recorded the ninth multigoal game of his career and tied Peter Zezel for the second-most by a Philadelphia player before age 22. Eric Lindros (17) tops the list. … Avalanche forward Joel Kiviranta returned after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. He had three shots on goal in 9:36 of ice time.