PHILADELPHIA — For the last 11 games, starting goaltender Carter Hart had stolen the show and outright stolen games for a Flyers team that struggled to get out of their own zone and reduce their opponents’ chances against.
But with Hart out due to an illness on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers pounced on the opportunity to prove that they’re capable of winning without him, too. They squashed the lowly Blues, 5-1, marking just the third time this season that the Flyers have won with a total of more than three goals.
Yes, backup goalie Felix Sandström was more than solid in his start, denying 29 of 30 shots on goal. He finally earned his first NHL win in his nine career starts. But the Flyers skaters stepped up on both sides of the puck to ease the burden on their goalie, especially in the first two periods. They scored three unanswered goals in the second period thanks to the efforts of Wade Allison, Travis Konecny, and Noah Cates.
But even when Blues center Ryan O’Reilly scored five and a half minutes into the third period to pull his team within two, the Flyers responded roughly a minute and a half later when winger Lukáš Sedlák cleaned up a rebound from a defenseman Nick Seeler shot from the blue line. Owen Tippett cemented the Flyers’ lead further with a goal that deflected off Greiss into the back of the net within the final minute of play.
Go north, young man
On Monday, Tortorella offered a critique of Allison’s play, acknowledging that he makes too many risky, lateral, “east-west” plays instead of moving the puck “north” up the ice. However, he also mentioned that Allison has responded well to the criticism, and in their last two games, Tortorella has promoted Allison to the second line alongside center Scott Laughton and left winger Joel Farabee.
You can’t get much further north than the back of the opponent’s net, and that’s exactly what Allison did with the puck on Tuesday when he played in the blue paint. Halfway through the second period, the Flyers’ second line lost an offensive-zone draw, but defenseman Ivan Provorov managed to keep the puck in the zone. He dropped the puck off for Farabee, who hit Provorov in motion with the puck while the defenseman drove toward the net. Allison camped out at the crease and deflected the puck off of his pants past goaltender Thomas Greiss to put the Flyers up, 1-0.
Konecny gets crafty off the rush
After Saturday night’s game, Tortorella said that the Flyers aren’t going to be a team like their opponent in the Ottawa Senators that use their blazing speed to create scoring chances off the rush. Instead, the Flyers were going to have to grind to get their goals this season. However, against the struggling Blues on Tuesday, the Flyers were able to dominate offensively in ways they haven’t been season.
Late in the second period, the Flyers generated a two-man rush between wingers Owen Tippett and Konecny. Tippett entered the zone with speed up the middle, dropping a pass off for Konecny at the top of the left face-off circle. Konecny skated toward the high slot and ripped a wrist shot past Greiss to extend the Flyers’ lead to two goals.
Ristolainen returns to the lineup
Tortorella held defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen out of the lineup on Saturday as a healthy scratch, displeased with the 28-year-old defenseman’s start to the season. Ristolainen re-entered the lineup on Tuesday with a chip on his shoulder and a determination to prove to his coach that he’s capable of killing plays in the defensive zone.
Ristolainen came up big for the Flyers in the first period. The Flyers won the puck possession game through the first 20 minutes, leading the Blues 29-19 in shot attempts. However, with six minutes remaining in the period, Ristolainen came up big with two blocks to prevent the Blues from getting the shot through on Sandström. In the second period, Ristolainen helped get the puck out of the Flyers’ zone, putting his team on the attack and leading to the Konecny goal.
What’s next
Tortorella and the Flyers hit the road to face off against his former team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, on Thursday at 7 p.m.
