Postgame 5: Flyers Down Ducks, 3-1

In the first game of a five-game road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 3-1, on Saturday afternoon at Honda Center. The game was up for grabs until the waning minutes before Philly put away the victory.

The first period was scoreless. Shots on goal were 10-7 in Anaheim's favor. A near-miss chance for Tyson Foerster was the closest the Flyers came to a goal.

The Flyers went to the game's first power play at 7:30 as Cutter Gauthier was penalized for hooking Matvei Michkov. The only scoring opportunity was a shorthanded chance for Alex Killorn.

Michkov inadvertently high-sticked Leo Carlsson at 10:25, putting Anaheim on a 5-on-4 man advantage. The Ducks had one shot on the power play.

The teams traded off one goal apiece in the second period. Play was a little more fluid in the frame. Shots on goal were tied at 12-12 (22-19 Anaheim overall).

At 1:34 of the second period, Samuel Ersson stopped Frank Vatrano from close range. Garnet Hathaway took a neutral zone tripping penalty at 1:45. The penalty evened out four seconds later as Troy Terry tripped Noah Cates off the ensuing faceoff.

Extending his goal streak to five straight games, Noah Cates got open in the slot to receive a pass from Bobby Brink and score at 4:03. Brink made the sequence happen with slick puck control on the front end.The secondary assist went to Cam York.

Brink created another power play opportunity as he was held by ex-Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas at 7:07. Ersson turned aside a shorthanded chance for Brett Leason.

On a play off the rush, Terry took a pass and moved into the attack zone. Using Travis Sanheim as a screen, Terry fired a shot home high to the blocker side for a 1-1 tie at 15:38.The assists went to Gudas and Jackson Lacombe.

Moments after play resumed, at 15:55, Foerster had to take a slashing penalty to neutralize a turnover. The Flyers survived the kill. Philly blocked a couple of shots and Ersson made a save on Mason McTavish.

The Cates line started the third period with a strong forechecking shift. Play settled into a series of one-and-dones except for one shift where the McTavish line had extended pressure. Finally, the Flyers forged a lead.

On a nice individual effort, Morgan Frost went wide on a defender off the rush and moved behind the net. Attempting to center a pass in front, Frost (7th goal of the season) backhanded a puck that banked into the net off goaltender Lukas Dostal for a 2-1 lead at 5:57. The lone assist went to Scott Laughton.

At 11:08, the Flyers had a close call on a sequence that started with McTavish winning an offensive zone faceoff cleanly against Ryan Poehling. Ersson was able to come up with a loose puck.

A multi-shot sequence for the Flyers ended with Drew Helleson high sticking Couturier near the Anaheim net at 13:38. The Flyers second unit won the first faceoff but the power play was unable to convert.

The Flyers were caught with too many players on the ice at 15:30, creating a must-kill penalty for Philly. With 3:33 on the third period clock, Anaheim pulled Dostal for a 6-on-4 attack. Ersson made a tough save on Carlsson off a faceoff.

Exiting the penalty box, Joel Farabee stole the puck from Olen Zellweger and went the other way to solo for an unassisted empty net goal (5th) at 17:40.

Ersson made a very tough save through traffic to protect the two-goal lead. The Flyers killed off the rest of the clock. Ersson earned the win with 31 saves on 32 shots. In a losing cause, Dostal stopped 22 of 24 shots by the Flyers.

Travis Konecny played in his 600th career NHL regular season game. It was game no. 100 for Brink.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

21 Scott Laughton - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny

71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink

74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 39 Matvei Michkov

86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York

24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

5 Egor Zamula - 9 Jamie Drysdale

33 Samuel Ersson

[35 Aleksei Kolosov]

PP1: Drysdale, Brink, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Ristolainen, Tippett, Frost, Cates, Foerster

Scratches:15 Olle Lycksell (healthy), 77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 82 Ivan Fedotov (healthy).

TURNING POINT

The outcome may have been different if the Flyers were made to pay the price for two shorthanded scoring chances for Anaheim. Instead, Frost's fortuitous bank-in at 5:57 of the third period proved to be the game-winning goal.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Reset for Ersson: The Flyers goaltender delivered exactly the short of confidence-restoring performance that the team needed after struggling in his previous six starts.

2. Puck management and structure: The game was not entirely clean from the Flyers in terms of execution and attention to detail. But it was good enough to win, and Ersson erased mistakes in front of him at key moments.

3. Cates line: The holiday break did not interrupt the stretch of strong play shown by the trio of Foerster, Cates and Brink. Even apart from Cates' goal, the line was the Flyers' best overall on the bulk of their shifts.

4. Flyers power play: The Flyers' continued to struggle on the man advantage, going 0-for-5 on Saturday afternoon. Four of the power plays were full opportunities, while one lasted just a few seconds. Philadelphia did not come close to scoring and struggled with entries in particular.

5. Drysdale vs. Ducks: Playing his first career game against his former club, Drysdale logged 16:51 of ice time in 22 shifts. He was credited with one shot on goal, two hits and two blocked shots.