Postgame 5: Sarge Takes Charge in 4-1 win over Wings

The first four-goal game of Scott Laughton's NHL career and second career hat trick powered the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday. Goaltender Alexei Kolosov flirted with a shutout for the first 56 minutes of the game.

The two teams evenly divided eight shots on goal through 9:50 of a largely whistle-free but disjointed start to the first period. By the end of the scoreless opening frame. shots on net favored the Flyers, 11-7. Shot attempts were 18-16 Flyers. Philly won seven of 11 faceoffs.

The game could have gone either way at this point. The Flyers were the team that answered the bell.

Philadelphia dominated most of the second period. Philly generated several prime chances, including a 2-on-1 look for Joel Farabee and a Sean Couturier breakaway, over the first half of the second period. Finally, they broke the scoreless tie.

Laughton (4th goal of the season) took off with the puck in the neutral zone after collecting a Simon Edvinsson turnover. At 13:22, he blasted a shot past Cam Talbot for a 1-0 Flyers lead. The goal was unassisted.

Morgan Frost created a Flyers power play as Edvinsson hooked him and Matvei Michkov nearly scored on a Michigan lacrosse-style attempt on the delayed call before the touch up at 15:34.

Second period shots on goal were 18-6 Flyers (30-14 Flyers through 40 minutes). Shot attempts were 20-12 Flyers (48-28 Flyers through two periods).Through two periods, Philly won 18 of 29 faceoffs.

Michkov got into a scrum off the opening faceoff of the third period and was penalized for roughing. On the ensuing kill, at 1:31, Laughton worked a give-and-go with Travis Konecny for a shorthanded goal (second of the game. 5th of the season). The secondary assist went to Travis Sanheim.

The tally was the Flyers second shorthanded goal of the season, and the 100th of Laughton's NHL career.

Detroit broke the shutout bid at 16:07 of the third period. After a failed clear by the Flyers, a Ben Chiarot point shot (1st goal of the season) appeared to deflect into the net off Noah Cates. The assists went to Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher. Shortly therafter, Aleksei Kolosov made a 10-bell save on Erik Gustafsson to protect the 2-1 lead.

Finally, with 1:07 left in the game, the hats came raining down as Laughton (6th, hat trick) scored his third goal of the night into a empty cage. The assists went to Konecny and Cates. Laughton added yet another ENG (7th, fourth of the game) with 12.5 seconds left to play. Garnet Hathaway, who got the lone assist, all but insisted that Laughton be the one to shoot the puck.

Third period shots on goal were 12-7 Detroit. Overall, the Flyers generated 36 shots to 26 for Detroit.

Kolosov earned the win with 35 saves on 36 shots. He didn't see much rubber until the final period and then was under siege at times after Philly took a 2-0 lead.

Talbot almost singlehandedly kept Detroit close in the the second period, ultimately finishing with 32 saves on 34 shots.Three times in the game, he robbed Matvei Michkov of near goals.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

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

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York
24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale
5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

35 Aleksei Kolosov
[33 Samuel Ersson]

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

Scratches:77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers (IR), 36 Emil Andrae (healthy), 82 Ivan Fedotov (healthy)

TURNING POINT

The first and second Laughton tallies, and then Kolosov's spectacular save on Gustavsson's bid to tie the game at 2-2 proved to the most pivotal moments of the game. The shorthanded goal -- both because of the timing and because the Flyers' PK has been struggling lately -- truly put Philly in the driver's seat.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Konecny goes for 17 of 19: The Flyers' leading scorer entered Thursday's game with at least one point in 16 of his last 18 games. Early in the third period, Konecny's shorthanded setup of Laughton made it 17 of 19 games on the scoresheet. Later, when he assisted on Laughton's empty netter that secured a hat trick, Konecny increased his point total over the last 19 games to 26 (10 goals, 16 assists).

2. Tippett takes aim at 6-in-6: Tippett, playing in his 300th career NHL game, entered the game on an offensive role with five goals over his past five games. He did not get on the scoresheet on Thursday, largely thanks to Talbot's play, but had two shots on goal in 14:28 of ice time. Tippett's line with Frost and Michkov played a generally strong game.

3. Flyers special teams: The empty net goal wast the one memorable special teams moment on Thursday. The Flyers were 0-for-1 on their lone power play. They were 1-for-1 on the PK.

4. Taking a lead, protecting a lead: The Flyers showed good patience and structure as they built the 2-0 lead by early in the third period. There were some dicey shifts once Detroit cut the deficit to one goal.

5. Behind enemy lines -- focus on Larkin: Detroit's No. 1 center was minus-three on the night. He had one shot on goal, won eight of 15 faceoffs and was charged with one giveaway in 20:16 of ice time. Rendering Larkin a non-factor for most of the night was a feather in the Flyers' cap.