Flyers Take 3-2 Win vs. Pens into Break

It was inartistic but desperately needed: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening. The Flyers snapped a five-game winless skid. Travis Konecny had a goal and assist while Samuel Ersson made 31 saves to earn the win.

John Tortorella's team will go into the leaguewide break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament with a 24-26-7 record. The Penguins are 23-25-9 .

Pittsburgh generated four of the game's first five shots on goal through the opening 10 minutes of the game. The Flyers, however, had the only one that really mattered: the game's opening goal.

Alternate captain Scott Laughton (11th goal of the season) gave the Flyers a quick 1-0 lead at 1:42 of the first period. After the debuting Andrei Kuzmenko moved the puck ahead to Konecny, the Flyers' leading scorer sent Laughton in toward the net with an open lane. Laughton finished off the play with a goal on the backhand.

Blake Lizotte high-sticked Matvei Michkov at 8:21 near the Pittsburgh net. No penalty was called. At 15:44, Sean Couturier got his skate tangled in the neutral zone with Noel Acciari, and accidentally tripped the Penguin for a minor penalty. The Flyers shut down the attack until the Penguins' Anthony Beauvillier started a mini-flurry near the net. Samuel Ersson froze the puck. As the period expired, the Penguins attempted several shots including a near point-blank chance for Michael Bunting.

First period shots on goal were 10-2 in Pittsburgh's favor. The Penguins also had 18 shot attempts blocked and missed the net on eight others. The Flyers had a combined five shot attempts (two on net, a blocked Rodrigo Abols attempt) and two that missed the net (including a Konecny shorthanded attempt. At one point, head coach John Tortorella called timeout to rally his team and try to shift momentum. Ersson was very strong, fortunately, and much of the play was contained to the perimeter. All that mattered, though, was that the only goal belonged to Philly.

Pittsburgh came out pressuring again early in the second period. Ersson came up with four saves in the first 2:47. At the other end, Jacob Gaucher had an open look off a pass from Kuzmenko. At 4:19, veteran offensive defenseman Erik Karlsson (6th) scored high to the short-side. The assists went to Matt Grzelcyk and Rickard Rakell.

Michkov was denied on a breakaway on the Flyers' first legitimate scoring chance of the second period. Shots on goal favored Pittsburgh by a 6-2 margin through 10 minutes. At 12:26, the Flyers caught a lucky break and restored a lead. Garnet Hathaway (8th of the season) made a beeline for a loose puck in the Pittsburgh zone. Blomqvist came out to play the puck and got there first. However, the goalie's clearing pass went off Hathaway and bounced into the net for a 2-1 Flyers' lead. The goal was unassisted.

At 17:19, after a pass from Kuzmenko, a pinching Cam York fired a shot off the crossbar and out of play. Second period shots on goal were 11-7 Penguins (21-9 Penguins through 40 minutes).

Tortorella jumbled line combinations in the third period. On the second shift of the period, Acciari backhanded a shot off the post.

On the next shift, Ersson made a 10-bell save on Danton Heinen. With the Flyers attacking 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty against Pittsburgh, Konecny (22nd) ripped a shot that went off Acciari and redirected past Blomqvist. The assists went to York and Travis Sanheim at 4:27.

At the 5:42 mark, a whistle near the net came simultaneously or a split-second after former Flyer Kevin Hayes jammed the puck in the net between Ersson's legs with the puck uncovered. The ruling on the ice was that there was goaltender interference. Penguins' coach Mike Sullivan challenged the ruling. Upon replay the call was reversed and the goal counted to cut Philadelphia's lead to 3-2. Hayes' 10th goal of the season. The assists went to Heinen and Beauvillier.

The Flyers officially went to their first power play at 11:19. With the puck deep in the Flyers' end of the ice, Lizotte was nabbed for a high-sticking minor as his stick came up on Hathaway. With 33 seconds left in the power play, after Jamie Drysdale broke his stick, the defenseman had to take a holding penalty to restrain Heinen from going in unimpeded on Ersson. Beauvillier snapped a shot on net as play went back finally to 5-on-5.

With 1:34 remaining in regulation and a faceoff coming up in the Flyers' zone, the Penguins pulled Bloqvist for a 6-on-5 and called timeout. With 9.5 seconds on the clock, Ersson froze the puck in a scrum around the net. Couturier won the final faceoff and the Flyers were able to run out the clock.

Ersson stopped 31 of 33 shots to earn the win in goal. Blomqvist made 17 saves on 20 shots.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

18 Rodrigo Abols- 14 Sean Couturier - 39 Matvei Michkov

71 Tyson Foerster - 27 Noah Cates - 10 Bobby Brink

96 Andrei Kuzmenko - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny

44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 78 Jacob Gaucher - 19 Garnet Hathaway

8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim

24 Nick Seeler- 9 Jamie Drysdale

36 Emil Andrae - 77 Erik Johnson

33 Samuel Ersson

[82 Ivan Fedotov]

PP1: Drysdale, Kuzmenko, Laughton, Konecny, Michkov

PP2: Andrae, Foerster, Cates, Brink, Sanheim

Scratches: 55 Rasmus Ristolainen (day-to-day), 74 Owen Tippett (upper body), 5 Egor Zamula (upper body), 25 Ryan Poehling (upper body), 22 Jakob Pelletier (non-roster).

TURNING POINT

The Hathaway goal was a lucky bounce but without the veteran winger's all-out hustle on the play, there wouldn't have been a go-ahead goal for Philly. Later, Konecny's 6-on-5 goal on a delayed penalty proved to be the game-winning tally.

POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)

1. Andrei Kuzmenko's Flyers debut: On his first shift as a Flyer, the Russian winger assisted on Laughton's goal. Later, Kuzmenko was involved in a couple of other scoring chances. In a low-event game for the Flyers over the first 30 minutes of the game, Kuzmenko was a positive standout. In the third period, Kuzmenko was involved in two additional scoring chances. Overall, he skated 18:53, had one shot on goal, and was credited with one blocked shot. The only downside was three charged giveaways and a would-be scoring chance that was taken off his stick as Kuzmenko double-clutched.

2. Between the pipes -- Samuel Ersson: The Team Sweden goalie was very sharp in net once again for the Flyers. He's been consistently solid since the team returned from the Christmas break.

3. Return of Risto: Nix this one. Veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen practiced with the team on Friday and was a game-time decision on Saturday. Ultimately, however, Ristolainen was held out of the lineup for the final game before the tourney break.

4. Foerster-Cates-Brink line: The Cates line stayed together for two periods. In the third period, with the line combinations in a blender, they were separated. Kuzmenko saw a couple of shifts with Cates and Konecny.

5. Special teams: The Flyers went 0-for-1 on their abbreviated lone power play of the game. However, Philly did score on a delayed penalty earlier (Which goes as an even strength goal for stat-keeping purposes). The Flyers were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.