Postgame 5: Flyers Down Blues, 2-1

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the St. Louis Blues, 2-1, at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. The Flyers improved to 4-6-1 on the season and have won three of their last four games.

Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead to the first intermission with a nice goal off the rush.

The Flyers fourth line stepped up for the game's first goal at 11:12. Ryan Poehling made a slick move on entry and dished to an open Garnet Hathaway (1st goal of the season) on the right side. Hathaway made no mistake. The assists went to Poehling and Nick Seeler.

The Blues had two power plays in the second period, while the Flyers had one. No goals ensued and Philly took their 1-0 edge into the third period.

St. Louis evened the score at 1-1 at 9:58 of the third period. Nathan Walker (1st) potted a Philip Broberg rebound. Zack Bolduc got the secondary helper.

The Flyers retook the lead at 16:59 on a perfect give-and-go. Going hard to the net, Bobby Brink (2nd) redirected a return feed by Joel Farabee into the net. The secondary assist was credited to Scott Laughton.

Samuel Ersson earned the win with 20 saves on 21 shots, including a win-preseving stop on Brayden Schenn. Jordan Binnington denied 19 of 21 shots.

The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

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

6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale
36 Emil Andrae - 77 Erik Johnson

33 Samuel Ersson
[35 Aleksei Kolosov]

PP1: Drysdale, Tippett, Frost, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Andrae, Foerster, Couturier, Farabee, Brink

TURNING POINT

The game seemed to be headed for overtime until Brink went hard to the net and was rewarded by the game-winning goal.

POSTGAME 5

1) The Laughton line took the game's first shift. The Flyers won the draw and went right to the attack with the game's first three shots on goal. St. Louis had three of the next four. The Flyers went on the first power play at 4:42.

2) Michkov was skipped on several shift rotations in the first period after he was caught too low on a puck support opportunity. He returned to the ice with 5:58 remaining in the first period. With 2:45 left, after three failed clears, the Laughton line took an icing. Seeler came up with a clutch block to relieve pressure. Throughout that entire span, St. Louis was unable to generate a shot on net. First period shots were 7-6 Blues.

3) At 2:34 of the second period, Johnson was penalized for interference. The Flyers killed it off without allowing a shot on goal. At 4:55, Oskar Sundvist was called for an offensive zone tripping minor. Right after that penalty expired at 7:53, Couturier was sent off for tripping.

4) After all the special teams, the Fyers started to find some rhythm in the latter portion of the second period. Frost nearly scored on a between-the-legs shot from a tight angle near the right post. Binnington did a good job of sealing off the short side. Second period shots on goal were 10-7 Flyers (16-14 Flyers through 40 minutes). Ersson's shutout streak was up to 126 minutes, 32 seconds.

5) The Flyers to their third power play at 5:20 of the third period. Michkov had a very strong shift. Philly was still unable to cash in.