POSTGAME 5: Flyers Soar over Blues, 5-1

The Philadelphia Flyers trounced the St. Louis Blues, 5-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday evening. The game was one of Philadelphia's most complete efforts of the young season: strong first period with an active forecheck, playing with focused emotion, building a multi-goal lead, answering back immediately after getting scored upon, and getting timely saves to round it out.

Philadelphia improved to 7-3-2 on the season. The Blues dropped to 3-8-0.
The Flyers got the better of a scoreless first period. The game was 0-0 until shortly past the midpoint of regulation when the Flyers exploded for goals by Wade Allison (3rd), Travis Konecny (5th) and a buzzer beater by Noah Cates (2nd).
Ryan O'Reilly (2nd) got one goal back for the Blues at 5;22 of the third period, but Philly struck right back as Lukas Sedlak (1st) made it a 4-1 game. Owen Tippett (3rd) added a goal in the final minute of the game.
Carter Hart was originally slated to get the start for the game but was unable to play due to illness. Felix Sandström started, and Samuel Ersson was recalled from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to back up Sandström. To make roster space, the Flyers assigned Egor Zamula to Lehigh Valley.
Sandström denied 28 of 29 shots to earn his first career NHL win. Thomas Greiss gave up five goals on 30 shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-1 on the power play. The Blues were 0-for-2.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
74 Owen Tippett - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
49 Noah Cates - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 48 Morgan Frost - 58 Tanner Laczynski
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
32 Felix Sandström
[33 Samuel Ersson]
TURNING POINT
The Flyers hard work paid off with three goals over the final 10-plus minutes of the second period. Suddenly, a 0-0 deadlock became a 3-0 cushion heading into the final period.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1. With St. Louis playing the second game of a back-to-back and the Flyers rested, Philly came out forechecking aggressively. Shots were 3-0 Flyers through 3:36 as Nick Seeler blocked a Pavel Buchnevich shot out of play; 4-0 through 4:29 and 6-0 through a TV timeout at 6:09.
The Flyers' first scoring chance came at about the 2:30 mark of the first period. Frost threaded a pass to Tony DeAngelo in the slot. Greiss made the save.
There were two fights in the first period. At 3:29, Seeler went with ex-Flyers center Brayden Schenn. MacEwen went with Robert Bortuzzo at 4:40.
The Flyers recorded takeaways on back-to-back shifts, first by Laughton and then by Frost. Allison had a near deflection goal.
St Louis finally started to generate some attack as the period neared the midway point. Sandström denied Robert Thomas on what looked like a probable goal Pavel Buchnevich also had a high-danger chance in close. At around the 14:00 mark, the Blues had back-to-back scoring chances.
With 90 seconds remaining in the first period, the Flyers had a near-miss chance as Tippett fed Konecny.
2. First period shots were 18-9 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were 29-19 Flyers. Scoring chances were 13-8 Flyers (5-3 high-danger edge for the Flyers). The Blues won 10 of the 16 faceoffs in the period. Wade Allison was credited with four hits in the period

3. The second period started with a little less urgent pace. The Blues registered five of the frame's first six shots. O'Reilly had a high-grade scoring chance at about 5:30. The Blues went on the first power play of the game (MacEwen was whistled off for high-sticking Ivan Barbashev at 5:39. O'Reilly had another chance from the slot at 6:49. Kyrou had a scoring opportunity right after the power play expired.
   At 10:11, the Flyers scored on just their second shot on goal of the period. Allison went to the net and got rewarded. Farabee, from high in the zone, got the puck to Provorov. The Flyers defenseman made a cross-crease pass that went to Allison and popped into the net. Provorov drew the primary assist and Farabee (100th career NHL point) the secondary.
   The Flyers built a 2-0 lead with a goal off the rush. Ristolainen moved the puck out to Hayes. Tippett attacked and gained entry, sending the puck to Konecny. Wheeling from over the middle to the right slot, Konecny found the net on a rising shot that beat Greiss over the blocker at 16:37.
   The Flyers had a short-lived power play at 18:37 when Tarasenko high-sticked Ristolainen as they battled near the right corner in the Flyers' zone. However, played moved to 4-on-4 (for 1:10) some 50 seconds later as Tippett was called for an offensive zone trip.
   With the teams skating 4-on-4 and the second period clock ticking down. Laughton picked a defender's pocket near the blueline, and a tic-tac-toe sequence unfolded: Laughton to Sanheim, Sanheim cross-ice to a wide-open Cates near the left post for a slam dunk.
   4. Second period shots were 9-7 Flyers. Shot attempts were 19-16 Blues. Scoring chances were 11-5 Blues (5-3 high-danger edge). Philly had what mattered most, of course: three goals in the cash register.
   5.The Blues created a couple of looks on the carryover power play. Sandström was equal to the test.
   Philly had another near tic-tac-toe goal at 5:12 of the third period: Tippett to Hates to-DeAngelo. Greiss made the save, however, and held on. As the shift resumed, the Blues went the other way and O'Reilly scored from the center slot at 5:22. The assists went to Barbashev and Nick Leddy.
   The Flyers quickly restored their three goal lead after winning a puck battle. Cates sent it out to Seeler and left point. At the net, Sedlak stashed it home at. 6:44 to restore a three-goal lead.
   Allison's stellar game continued as he went dow and a cleanly blocked a shot. With 9:22 left,, Third period shots were 11-3 Blues at a TV timeout.
   Over the latter portion of the third period, the Blues seemed to realize that no comeback was in the making. To add insult to injury, a Tippett shot popped up in the air and landed behind Greiss into the net at 19:21. Konecny earned the lone assist.
   Third period shots were 13-8 Blues. Third period shot attempts were 25-11 Blues. Scoring chances were 10-4 Blues (3-1 Blues in high-danger chances).