The Flyers battled in a hard fought game, but Matthew Knies scored the winning tally to help lift Toronto to their fifth straight win – tied with the Stars and Red Wings for the longest active streak in the League. Let’s wrap on all the sights and sounds of the match:
In Hot Pursuit
In arguably their most complete period of the season, the Flyers dominated play in the opening stanza. Philly held a 10-1 shot advantage over the Maple Leafs and went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Moreover, it was really about the puck pursuit for the Flyers in the first period. To a man, the club aggressively attacked the Toronto puck carriers and forced them to put the disc in dangerous areas to begin the game. As a result, the Leafs were charged with six giveaways in the first frame. It was a spirited effort against a quality opponent.
“I think we were playing the right way,” Noah Cates said. “Really aggressive on them in the neutral zone against their top guys. I do
think we take some confidence. It just really hurts not at least getting the points tonight. If we play the right way
and if we play like that against a lot of these teams, I think we’ll get points, start to get on a roll here.”
The orange and black deservedly took a 1-0 first period lead into intermission. The game seesawed from there. In the second period, John Taveres and Auston Matthews scored for Toronto before Knies eventually iced the game in the third period.
Game of Inches
Perhaps the most frustrating part of this contest is that the Flyers should have skated away with at least a point. With roughly a minute left in regulation, Owen Tippett had a prime opportunity to push the game to overtime after a beautiful pass from Michkov. Tippett had a wide-open cage yawning at him, but rushed the shot a bit and shot the puck back through the crease area. It appeared to be just one of those plays where the player had about a second or two longer than they anticipated.
They Said It
John Tortorella on Scott Laughton and Matvei Michkov’s collision in the third period: “I thought we lost ourselves for a few minutes after the collision, but we defended.”
Travis Konecny on Joel Farabee’s first period fight: “Beezer’s a tough kid. He doesn’t do it all the time, but he’s not afraid of anybody. I think it was a big moment in the game to get everyone engaged. We love when guys do that.”
Ivan Fedotov starting back to back games after a long layoff: “It feels really good when you play a lot and can find the rhythm in how to stop the puck.”
Noah Cates on the Flyers struggling with Face-offs: “We’ve been getting scored on a lot of faceoffs recently. Just comes down to a focus from everyone, all 60 minutes. I just think that’s the biggest thing this kind of time in the season.”
Did You Know?
With two goals in this game, forward Travis Konecny now has 12 points (4g-8a) in his last nines games against the Maple Leafs.
On Deck
The Flyers will continue their five game homestand on Thursday, when they host the Dallas Stars. The game will be broadcast locally on NBCSP.
