Matvei Michkov put on his superhero cape once again, scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win over the Boston Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night.
Michkov, 19, is up to three goals in his only two career games in front of the Flyers faithful at home after scoring the empty-net goal against the visiting New York Islanders on Thursday, and his confidence is visibly growing.
Another part of that, though, is the support Michkov’s teammates have shown him in his short time in North America.
Flyers captain Sean Couturier noticed Bruins defenseman and career AHLer Billy Sweezey pinning Michkov to the glass and shoving him away from the play and decided that Sweezey’s antics were not acceptable.
So what did the soft-spoken, usually reserved Couturier do? He immediately challenged Sweezey to a fight and won.
Couturier dropping the gloves doesn’t happen often, and his teammates and coaches took notice.
“Gigantic. That’s how team’s are built, right? It’s a brotherhood. You play for one another,” said Flyers associate coach Brad Shaw, describing how Couturier’s fight affected the bench and the locker room. “Absolute perfect leadership at that time. Exactly what we needed. Not surprised that we scored shortly after that.”
Just 14 seconds removed from the fighting majors, Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen tied the game at 1-1, answering Hampus Lindholm’s opening goal with a laser beam from the right circle.
Even though Bruins youngster Matt Poitras stole the lead back with a shorthanded goal early in the second period, the Flyers were beginning to find their game. The power play – Michkov’s unit in particular – was generating positive momentum.
And then Michkov took over.
Less than two minutes after Poitras’s goal, the Flyers were gifted another power play when Poitras hooked Scott Laughton.
Rotating high to low with Travis Konecny, Michkov snuck behind Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei and parked himself right on top of the far post of the goal. Just seconds later, Olle Lycksell’s brilliant pass from the left circle hit Michkov’s stick and bounced into the net for an effortless power play goal.
“Yeah, just trying to feed him,” Lycksell said of his assist with a big smile. “And I think he kind of knows the spots where he should be in order to, kind of, make a good scoring chance out of every situation, and I feel like he really showed that tonight with the goal there.
“He’s by the post, he gets kind of open out there and that’s not his position from the start. He knows where to be to score the goals, and that’s great stuff.”
Couturier, who played on a line with Michkov and Konecny on Saturday night, was more impressed with some of the things Michkov did without the puck.
“He wants to score goals, he wants the puck, and he works hard for it,” Couturier added. “That’s what you want to see from a young guy. He’s just working hard.”
“He’s a deceptive guy. He goes into those puck battles and it’s like, ‘Oh boy, that’s too bad we’re not going to win this one,’ and then he’s skating out of the puck battle with the puck,” Shaw quipped.
And, after Michkov tied the game, he scored the winner for good measure.
Racing down the ice with Konecny flanking him, Michkov pivoted inside from the left circle to squeeze the angle, took aim, and ripped his shot past the helpless outstretched glove of Joonas Korpisalo, lifting the Flyers to a 3-2 overtime win over the Bs.
