POSTGAME 5: Flyers End January with 4-3 OT Win

The Philadelphia salvaged a win in their final game of January with a 4-3 overtime win over the LA Kings on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. A hard-working effort up and down the Philadelphia lineup helped to eke out the victor

The Flyers led by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 but it took an overtime goal by Scott Laughton (7th of the season) to nail down a victory. Cam Atkinson notched even strength and shorthanded goals in the game and then assisted on Laughton's game-winner. The victory halted a 13-game winless streak for the Flyers. It also marked the team's long-elusive first win of the 2022 calendar year.
Midway through the first period, Gerry Mayhew (3rd goal of the season) finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence to tally the lone goal of the opening stanza.
In the middle of the second period, Atkinson (16th) potted a rebound goal off a creative play by Claude Giroux. Viktor Arvidsson (11th) narrowed the Flyers' lead down to 2-1 in the last five minutes of the frame.
Atkinson (17th) notched an unassisted shorthanded goal at 9:06 of the third period but LA got it right back with a power play goal that deflected in off Arvidsson at 10:51. In the final 38 seconds of regulation, Anze Kopitar (14th) forced overtime.
Carter Hart was outstanding in goal for the Flyers. He stopped 37 of 40 shots. He had little to no chance on any of the three LA goals, and was victimized by two bad bounces.
Jonathan Quick took the loss. He made 32 saves on 36 Flyers shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. They were 2-for-3 on the penalty kill with Atkinson scoring shorthanded but LA getting the goal right back.
TURNING POINT
Scott Laughton had several scoring chances over the course of the game. He finally got rewarded as Atkinson put the puck at the net and Laughton potted the OT winner at the 2:22 mark. Ivan Provorov got the secondary assist.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Quick made an immediate stop on Travis Konecny off a give-and-go rush with Scott Laughton on the game's first shift. Andreas Athanasiou hit the post on LA's first scoring chance. Near the 3:00 mark, Rasmus Ristolainen landed the game's first big hit, sending Blake Lizotte sprawling to the ice in the neutral zone.
Morgan Frost carried a puck into the left circle, made a stutter step and used a defender as a screen. Quick was equal to the task.
At 4:54, after Gerry Mayhew had his stick slashed out of his hands without getting a penalty call, Mayhew took a frustration-driven interference penalty. The Kings moved the puck at will on the first half of the man advantage but Hart stepped up as Philadelphia's best penalty killer. The skaters in front regained some equilibrium over the latter part of the successful kill.
Scott Laughton's line and the defense pair of Keith Yandle and Cam York got pinned in the defensive zone on a lengthy shift. Hart kept the game scoreless.
At 9:33, the Flyers got on the board first (second straight game). Frost led the breakout with speed after winning the puck along the boards against the much larger Quinton Byfield. Gaining the offensive blueline, he made a tape-to-tape pass to the oncoming Rasmus Ristolainen, who dangled past the defense. Ristolainen then found Mayhew alone in the right slot. Mayhew finished it off, with Ristolainen and Frost getting the assists.
Shortly thereafter, Laughton cut in from the left circle to generate a one-on-one chance against Quick. He was unable to finish off his forehand shot. When the Flyers' fourth line had its next shift, the debuting Isaac Ratcliffe flattened LA's Mikey Anderson with a neutral zone hit. The third line had another scoring chance when Mayhew centered a pass in front from behind the net but Frost whiffed on a one-timer opportunity from the slot. At 14:30, James van Riemsdyk found room to take the puck to the net and tried to chip the puck over Quick.
About 16 minutes into the period, the Connor Bunnaman line with Ratcliffe and Zack MacEwen had a good cycling shift, although no chances resulted. With 2:34 remaining on the first period clock, Adrian Kempe fired a shot on the from the deep center slot. Hart was able to squeeze the pads enough to stop the puck. Ristolainen deposited an attacker near the net on the ice, with the net coming off its moorings. In the final 90 seconds of the period, Anderson was knocked to the ice again; this time by Oskar Lindblom.
In the final 3.7 seconds, Matt Roy hit Max Willman after the puck was gone in the neutral zone. The Flyers got their first power play, which carried over into the second period.
2) FIrst period shots were 11-7 in LA's favor; mostly a product of LA's five shot attempt volley on their early power play. At 5-on-5, play was fast-paced and largely even with an 11-10 shot attempt differential in LA's favor. Philadelphia was credited with 11 hits in the opening stanza to 9 for the Kings. Ristolainen (3 credited hits) led the way for Philadelphia.
3) The Flyers' first power play was a roller coaster. A Cam Atkinson turnover led to a shorthanded rush for Phillip Danault. His bouncing shot on the net produced a fat rebound but Hart erased the follow-up. The Flyers then had issues with generating entries and a couple of turnovers in dangerous areas nearly led to additional shorthanded counter opportunities. However, once in the attack zone, the Flyers generated some pressure. Quick denied a JVR tip in front as well as a Konecny one-timer. A late deflection chance off a Cam York shot (starting with a precise feed across the ice by Frost) closed out the power play.
LA got their second power play of the game at 3:19 of the second period. Laughton was called for a neutral zone hooking penalty on Kopitar. As with the first LA power play, the Flyers were largely carved up by the LA puck movement. The Kings generated a whopping eight shot attempts on this man advantage. Hart was equal to the ones that got on his net.
The Flyers extended the lead to 2-0 at 9:24 of the second period. Giroux fired a deliberate long bouncer on the net from the red line (somewhat similar to the Danault play). The puck rebounded into the slot. Atkinson pounced, and beat Quick upstairs.
Laughton passed up a shot opportunity to find Konecny near the net with a pass instead. Quick made the save at 12:15. After roughly seven minutes of holding LA without a shot on goal, Hart made his eighth save of the second period (19th of the game). On the next shift, after the puck was chipped past Ristolainen at the offensive zone right point, Hart stopped an Alex Iafallo shot from the left circle. With 6:41 left in the period, Hart stopped a scorching shot from Athanasiou from near the left hash marks.
Ratcliffe nearly scored a goal in his NHL debut as MacEwen chipped the puck to him in the LA zone. Quick stopped the attempt from the left slot.
LA cut their deficit to 2-1 at the 15:15 mark. What started out as an even-numbered rush broke down rapidly for the Flyers. Yandle went over to partner Cam York's side and Konecny (at the end of a shift) struggled to get all the way back on the backcheck. By the end, LA had 2-on-0 down low with one side of the ice wide open. Arvidsson had a tap-in at the post after a pass from Sean Durzi. Danault got the secondary assist on his initial nifty pass to Durzi.
The Kings made a heavy push for most of the remaining time in the second period after the Arvidsson goal. The Flyers did have a 2-on-1 counterattack chance for Konecny and van Riemsdyk. Konecny shot for the pads, looking for a rebound. However, JVR was in too deep by that point.
4) Second period shots were 14-12 Flyers (23-21 LA through two periods). The Flyers had a 3-1 high-danger chance edge at 5-on-5 but LA's opportunity was converted into Arvidsson's goal. Through two periods, LA won 16 of 31 faceoffs.
5) The Flyers escaped a dangerous giveaway by Travis Sanheim in his own zone on the first shift of the third period. Cam Atkison was high-sticked by Olli Määttä at 1:17 as he attempted to receive a pass from Oskar Lindblom as the Swedish forward swooped around behind the net. The first PP unit struggled. The second unit generated a scoring chance on a rebound follow-up attempt by Lindblom on a Frost shot from the right circle.
Doughty jumped into a play and funneled the puck in on Hart with teammates swirling. Hart made the save. Arvidsson took a puck hard to the net and later fired a right-wing slapper on Hart. Shots were 7-5 LA through 7:53.
A marginal holding penalty on Lindblom was called at 5:57 as he jostled with Durzi in the LA zone. NIne seconds into the kill, after LA won the initial faceoff and then turned the puck over, Atkinson scored on his own shorthanded rebound after Quick made the initial save. LA struck right back on their power play, however, as a puck that was heading wide of the net bounced off Arvidsson re-directed past Hart The assists went to Arthur Kaliyev and Durzi..
Just past the 12-minute mark, Kempe beat Ristolainen wide on the rush. Hart made the save. Moore generated a scramble around the Flyers' net. Hart found the puck and held for the stoppage. Shots were 13-9 LA with 5:48 left on the clock.
Frost won a battle in the defensive zone and fired two shots on net in the offensive zone on the same shift. Willman also turned in good work on the shift, as the Flyers were able to do more attacking than defending.
Kempe attacked the net again, forcing Hart to react quickly. The Kings called timeout and pulled Quick for an extra attacker at 17:36.
With 37.4 seconds on the clock, after Hart made two saves in an extended scramble around the net, a Ristolainen clearing attempt hit Giroux in the back and went right to Kopitar. The veteran Slovenian center then slid a backhander that Hart couldn't quite stop. The assists went to Moore and Doughty.
Frost fired a shot that Quick squeezed the pads to stop just before the buzzer. Third period shots were 17-13 LA (40-34 Kings through regulation).