Postgame 5: Flyers Down Sabres, 5-2

The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, on Saturday evening at Wells Fargo Center. It was one of the Flyers more convincing wins of the season to date. The Flyers improved to 8-8-2 on the season through 18 games.

Philly took a 1-0 lead on the power play 15:57 of the first period, After Joel Farabee put the puck to the net, Tyson Foerster (3rd goal of the season) knocked in the rebound as Anthony Richard kept the puck alive in front. The assists went to Richard and Farabee.

The Flyers made it 2-0 at 16:01 of the opening period. Travis Sanheim (5th) hammered a slap shot in the net from above the right circle. Travis Konecny went from the half wall up high to Egor Zamula, who quickly passed over to Sanheim. The point tied Sanheim with Doug Crossman for 10th on the Flyers all-time scoring list among defensemen.

Two additional Flyers goals in the middle stanza doubled the lead from 2-0 to 4-0.

A bouncing, seeing eye puck gave the Flyers a 3-0 lead at 2:08 of the second period. Egor Zamula (1st goal of the season) appeared to be attempting a shot pass but the puck skittered in through traffic. The assists went to Richard (second of the game) and Matvei Michkov.

Michkov carried the mail on a 2-on-0 breakaway and fed across to Konecny (10th) for a slam dunk that opened a four-goal lead at 17:07. Sanheim earned the secondary assist. A skirmish broke out after the goal.

Buffalo cut the gap to 4-1 at 10:06 of the third period as Rasmus Dahlin (PPG, 5th) ripped a power play goal through traffic at 10:06 of the third period. The assists went to Alex Tuch and Jason Zucker.

The Sabres pulled the goaltender for a 6-on-5 attack when trailing 4-1 in the third period. At 18:55, Ryan McLeod (6th) knocked in a loose puck in the crease to make it a 4-2 game. The assists went to JJ Peterka and Dahlin. At 19:42, Konecny (11th of the season) scored an empty netter to seal the 5-2 final. Couturier drew the lone assist.

Ivan Fedotov stopped 24 of 26 Buffalo shots to earn the win. Sabres goalie Devin Levi made 27 saves on 31 shots.

Flyers defenseman Erik Johnson attained the coveted Silver Stick milestone in Saturday's game, playing in his 1,000th career NHL regular season game.

The Flyers went 1-for-5 on the power play. They were 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

74 Owen Tippett - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Bobby Brink

90 Anthony Richard - 25 Ryan Poehling - 39 Matvei Michkoc

71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 19 Garnet Hathaway

36 Emil Andrae - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
5 Egor Zamula - 77 Erik Johnson

82 Ivan Fedotov

[35 Aleksei Kolosov]

PP1: Andrae, Tippett, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Zamula, Foerster, Farabee, Brink, Richard

Scratches: 48 Morgan Frost (healthy), 33 Samuel Ersson (lower body), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (healthy), 8 Cam York (IR), 9 Jamie Drysdale (IR).

TURNING POINT

The Flyers went into Saturday's game in a 2-for-22 spell on the power play. Foerster's rebound goal got the Flyers' offense rolling. The other aspects of the Flyers game were also in sync in this game.

POSTGAME 5

1) The Flyers erased an Alex Tuch scoring chance from the slot at 2:17 of the first period. Shots on goal were tied 1-1 through 3:56. The Flyers went to the game's first power play at 6:44 as Connor Clifton went off for cross-checking. The Flyers generated some good puck movement but were unable to capitalize. Fedotov made a good stop on a one-timer from the left circle by Jiri Kulich at 11:01.

2) Fedotov made a clutch save on JJ Peterka to keep the game scoreless in the first period before Foerster and Sanheim struck for a pair of goals. Foerster's goal came with Zach Benson in the penalty box for slashing Ristolainen. First period shots on goal were 10-8 in the Flyers' favor.

3) Through 5:11 of the second period shots were 4-3 Flyers. There was an awkward collision in the Buffalo zone, but fortunately Tippett was no worse the wear. With the score 3-0, the Flyers were guilty of a few turnovers and Buffalo started to generate a little more attack.

5) Fedotov faced his first shot of the third period at the 6:09 mark; a routine save from the perimeter. With 10:54 remaining in regulation, Levi caught a break when Cates' shot bounced off the post. The Sabres went to the power play at 9:57 on a questionable holding minor on Sanheim. Buffalo quickly turned it into a power play goal. After Dahlin's goal, the Fyers soon went to their own power play at 10:26.