The Philadelphia Flyers are playing their best hockey of the season, but they will face a new challenge on Thursday when they host the defending champion Florida Panthers.
The Flyers are 4-0-1 in their last five games, including three overtime wins. Rookie winger Matvei Michkov has scored overtime goals in two of those victories. The 19-year-old Russian has netted three overtime goals in the last nine games, including a 3-2 win at St. Louis on Saturday.
“We’ve had some confidence with (overtime),” said Flyers coach John Tortorella. “Michkov has helped us quite a bit there. Last year, we struggled with it.”
The Flyers have had a break since Saturday’s win, so it remains to be seen if their recent momentum will carry into Thursday’s game.
One area that could help the Flyers against Florida is the possible return of their No. 1 goaltender Samuel Ersson, who has been out since Nov. 11 with a lower-body injury. Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov have shared time in net during Ersson’s absence, with mixed results.
Tortorella is thankful for the chance to evaluate both backup goalies, but he also wants to continue seeing how Ersson performs in his first full season as the team’s starting goalie.
“All this stuff with the injuries, the goalie, our No. 1 guy gone, it gives us an idea of what we have,” Tortorella said. “And that’s a big part of this year and, quite honestly, next (year) because there are no free agents coming. We have to keep on evaluating what we have in the organization.”
Florida knows what it has in its top goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky. However, Bobrovsky has been out recently while waiting for the birth of his child. He is expected to miss Thursday’s game, which could mean another start for Spencer Knight.
Knight allowed five goals on 16 shots in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, leaving Panthers coach Paul Maurice with mixed feelings.
“It was alright. I think that’s how we felt about it,” Maurice said. “I don’t think we gave up a tremendous amount. I don’t think we took advantage of some things that we normally do. I’m not 100 percent sure how I feel about that one.”
After winning their previous three games by a combined score of 17-4, the Panthers were down 4-1 to the Penguins with under 14 minutes remaining. However, Matthew Tkachuk scored a goal and had two assists in the third period to help his team force overtime, although they ultimately lost.
“I guess it’s a point that we’re happy to get,” said Tkachuk, who finished with two goals and two assists to surpass 600 career points. He now has 603 points in his ninth season. “But when we fight back, you just really want to get that win.”
Jesper Boqvist had two assists, and his brother Adam Boqvist scored a goal for Florida.
“We just know when we go out there that we can wear teams down,” said Adam Boqvist. “I think we almost showed that tonight with the third period. Just move on from this.”
The Panthers beat the Flyers 4-3 in a shootout last month in Florida. The two teams will meet again on Jan. 13 in Philadelphia.
