The Philadelphia Flyers are getting their starting goaltender back. Sam Ersson will return from his lower-body injury to start Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.
Ersson played the first two periods of the Flyers’ 4-0 shutout win in San Jose on New Year’s Eve before being relieved by Aleksei Kolosov to start the third period. He stopped all 15 shots he faced before leaving the game.
The 25-year-old netminder missed the last three games but will get the start on Thursday night.
Ersson’s return will be a welcome one for a Flyers team that is sporting a historically bad save percentage. Their .877 SV% through 41 games is the worst in the league with the Columbus Blue Jackets (.880) and Montreal Canadiens (.888) as the only other teams with a save percentage below .890.
The Swedish goaltender has missed time on multiple occasions this season due to a nagging groin injury. He is 9-6-2 with an .884 SV% and 3.02 GA in 19 games (18 starts). Despite how bad his numbers may look, they’re actually the best on the team ahead of Ivan Fedotov (4-5-2, .874 SV%, 3.40 GAA) and Kolosov (4-8-1, .870 SV%, 3.45 GAA).
Ersson is getting thrown right back into the fire against a red-hot Stars team. Dallas has won five games in a row and is 9-3-1 in the last month.
With Ersson returning, Kolosov will be a healthy scratch as Fedotov has seemingly jumped him in the depth chart after the last few games. The big Russian netminder will be on the bench as the backup on Thursday night.
No matter what happens, the Flyers are going to need their goalies to step up in the second half of the season. Thursday night’s game starts a stretch of four games in six nights against the Stars, Ducks, Panthers, and Blue Jackets. They Flyers also have two back-to-backs this month on the 13th (vs. Florida) and 14th (at Columbus) and then on the 29th (at New Jersey) and 30th (vs. Islanders).
Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night in South Philadelphia.
