Flyers score 3 in 1st, ease past Sabres

BUFFALO – The Philadelphia Flyers scored three goals in the first period in a 5-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.

“I think we’ve been working really hard, pressing forward and creating a lot of chances for ourselves,” Philadelphia forward Scott Laughton said. “They haven’t been going in, but hopefully, this starts us to get going a little bit and find the back of the net. We’ve got a back-to-back coming up (against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday), so get home, get some rest and get back at it.”

Bobby Brink had a goal and an assist, Joel Farabee had two assists, and Louie Belpedio scored his first NHL goal for the Flyers (5-5-1), who ended a three-game skid. Samuel Ersson made 21 saves.

“It was a tough start for me, and this win kind of gets me back into things,” Ersson said. “I think for me now, I have to build on this and keep moving forward here.”

Henri Jokiharju scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 14 saves for the Sabres (5-6-0), who lost for the first time in three games.

“I just don’t think we played with enough urgency,” Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo said. “We know that team comes out, works, and we have to try to match their work ethic and play with purpose. And I just don’t think we started the game with purpose.”

Laughton gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 1:03 of the first period, finishing a back-and-forth passing play with Brink from the left face-off circle.

Belpedio made it 2-0 just 28 seconds later after Morgan Frost’s shot hit the stick of Jokiharju and deflected to Belpedio in the right circle.

“[Felt] better than I expected, honestly,” said Belpedio, who made his NHL debut on April 7, 2018, with the Minnesota Wild and was playing his ninth NHL game. “It’s exciting. All the guys were happy for me, too. That makes it a little better. I’m sure my family and friends will have a couple of text messages on my phone for me, so I’m excited to get back and read those.”

Travis Konecny pushed the lead to 3-0 at 14:57, intercepting a pass by JJ Peterka at the Flyers blue line and scoring on a breakaway.

Garnet Hathaway made it 4-0 at 14:35 of the second after receiving a cross-ice pass by Ryan Poehling at the far post for a tap-in.

Jokiharju cut it to 4-1 from the high slot at 2:24 of the third period.

“The second period was important because they’ve got some really good players and they can score some goals,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “I just don’t think we changed our game positionally when we didn’t have the puck and we checked forward. We tried to stay aggressive with our checking and not back off and be on our heels. I thought we handled ourselves very well in the third period when they scored. The building gets going, they can score some goals when they want to and I just thought we simplified our game, played straight ahead and just kept our composure.”

Brink scored on a partial breakaway at 11:28 for the 5-1 final.

“I thought there was enough generated to get breaks and the question would be, did you earn the break?” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “We could have scored, but let’s face it, we didn’t play the way we needed to play. It starts with playing faster and more direct, and we were not direct enough and that was the difference in the game.”

Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left in the first period with a lower-body injury. There was no update.

NOTES: Brink moved into a tie with Coyotes forward Logan Cooley (one goal, seven assists) for the most points among rookies this season. … Belpedio went 2,036 days between his NHL debut and first goal. He became the second player this season to score his first NHL goal more than 2,000 days after debuting, following Kings defenseman Andreas Englund (2,523 days between Dec. 3, 2016, and Oct. 31). The record for the longest span between a player's NHL debut and first goal is held by former Flyers defenseman Dick Cherry (4,403 days between Dec. 30, 1956 and Jan. 19, 1969). … Buffalo forwards Jeff Skinner (six games), Tage Thompson (four games) and Alex Tuch (four games) each had his point streak end.