The overtime heroics of Flyers rookie winger Matvei Michkov arose again to deliver a 3-2 win for the Flyers over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday night. The Flyers held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 but were unable to close out the win in regulation. Michkov delivered his third overtime goal of the season and ninth tally overall.
On the game winning sequence, Travis Konecny made a diving play in the defensive zone. Michkov collected the puck, moved in on a forehand to backhand move, and then finished it off at the 28-second mark of sudden death.
With the victory, the Flyers finished November with an 8-4-2 in November after posting a 4-6-1 record in October. They swept the season series against the Blues, going 2-0-0.
The first eight minutes of the opening period saw frequent stoppages and just two shots on goal, both by the Flyers. At 9:15, the Flyers scored first. St. Louis finally recorded their first shot on goal at 11:46.
On the Flyers goal, Morgan Frost made a bank pounce from the defensive zone that started a mini 2-on-1 up ice. Showing great patience, Matvei Michkov held the puck and then passed to Owen Tippett (5th goal of the season) for a tap-in at the net.
As the first period progressed, Aleksei Kolosov was not busy until late in the frame. The rookie had to make a point blank save on Brandon Saad and deny a breakaway by Jordan Kyrou. Shots for the frame ended up 10-6 in the Flyers' favor.
The second period was more wide open at times but neither team scored. Shots on goal were 16-9 in the Flyers' favor (25-15 Flyers through two periods)
The Blues tied the game at 11:11 of the third period as Dylan Holloway (7th) ripped home a shot from the slot. The assists went to Brayden Schenn and Matthew Kessel.
Fifty-one seconds later, Philly reclaimed a 2-1 lead at 12:02. Brink was robbed on a point blank chance on the backhand. Tyson Foerster (5th) collected the loose chance and deposited it in the net. The assists went to Brink and Cates.
In the span of a single shift, Joel Farabee had two chances one-on-one with Jordan Binnington. At 17:50, the Blues went to a power play with a chance to potentially force overtime. With 65 seconds left in regulation, the Blues pulled Binnington for an extra attacker.
With 18.3 seconds left on the clock, Alexsei Kolosov made two point-blank saves but was unable to make a third. On a 6-on-4 attack, Jake Neighbours (PPG. 8th) deposited a rebound to forge a 2-2 tie and send the game to OT. The assists went to Justin Faulk and Kyrou.
Kolosov finished the game with 26 saves on 28 shots. In a losing cause, Binnington stopped 28 of 31 shots.
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
36 Emil Andrae - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 5 Egor Zamula
35 Aleksei Kolosov
[82 Ivan Fedotov]
PP1: Andrae, Frost, Couturier, Konecny, Michkov
PP2: Sanheim, Tippett Farabee, Foerster ,Brink
Scratches: 3 Helge Grans (healthy),77 Erik Johnson (healthy), 44 Nicolas Deslauriers, 9 Jamie Drysdale (IR), 33 Samuel Ersson (IR, lower body).
TURNING POINT
The Flyers could have sagged after the Holloway or Neighbours tallies. Both times, they doubled down on their resolve and found ways to answer back quickly.
POSTGAME 5 ("5 Things" Revisited)
1.Beating the fatigue factor: Playing their fourth game in six nights, the Flyers came out of the gates with a good first period. The Flyers carried the 1-0 lead into the third period. The Blues started to generate more pressure than the Flyers in the third period but Philly also had their share of chances.
2. TK's quest for 21 November points: Konecny finished the month with 20 points. He went off slowly in the first period after contact with Brayden Schenn but remained in the game. In the middle frame, he created a point-blank chance for Couturier. In the third period, Konecny sent Farabee in on Binnington. In overtime, he made a fantastic play in the defensive zone to start the game-ending goal sequence for Michkov.
3. Brink coming off breakout game: Brink was quiet in the first period but was involved in a pair of scoring opportunities in the second period. He had a power play scoring chance from the bottom of the right circle and later, made a nice cross-seam pass to find a pinching Sanheim atop the left circle. In the third period, he came within a whisker of goals in back-to-back games but collected the primary assist on Foerster's go-ahead tally.
4. Kolosov vs. Binnington: The second period was highlighted by numerous outstanding saves. Kolosov made excellent stops on Mathieu Joseph and Alexey Toropchenko and, later, denied Schenn on a shorthanded 2-on-1. At the other end, Binnington denied a Poehling breakaway as he exited the penalty box and later made a 10-bell stop on a sprawling glove save on Couturier. In the third period, over the first 9:27, Kolosov made five saves while Binnington saw just one shot before a Couturier breakaway.
5. Special teams outlook: The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. There were no penalties in the first period. The Blues had the first power play of the second period before the Flyers had the next two. On the St. Louis power play, Hathaway prevented what looked like an almost certain goal by Kyrou. A high-sticking penalty on York at 1:01 of the third period put St. Louis on their second power play. Rasmus Ristolainen made a pair of strong plays on the kill. With 2:10 left in regulation, Konecny took a bad hooking penalty. The Blues turned it into the game-tying goal.
