Tag: Philadelphia Flyers

Patrick Kane scored the go-ahead goal at 7:22 of the third period, and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

J.T. Compher and Lucas Raymond each contributed a goal and an assist, while Alex DeBrincat, Michael Rasmussen, and Joe Veleno scored the other goals. Dylan Larkin had two assists for Detroit, which has won three of its last four games.

Alex Lyon, who was playing his first game since November 25, made 15 saves.

For the Flyers, Travis Konecny, Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling, and Owen Tippett scored. Philadelphia is 2-4-1 in its last seven games. Samuel Ersson made 18 saves.

The Flyers took the lead just 1:06 into the game when Konecny scored on a breakaway, sending a backhand shot through Lyon’s legs. Joel Farabee and Sean Couturier assisted on the play.

The Red Wings got a four-minute power play late in the period when Tippett was called for a double minor for high sticking.

Compher scored his first goal in 22 games during the power play, redirecting a pass from Dylan Larkin.

Detroit went up 2-1 with 9:45 left in the second period. Kane skated into the right circle and passed to the opposite circle, where DeBrincat one-timed the puck past Ersson.

The Flyers quickly tied the game 25 seconds later, as Cates redirected a Tyson Foerster shot.

Detroit regained the lead with 3:55 remaining in the second. Compher won a faceoff, and Rasmussen fired a shot that slipped past Ersson’s glove.

A little over a minute later, Veleno stole the puck in his own zone, leading to a breakaway. He received a pass from Christian Fischer and scored with a shot that went just under the crossbar, putting the Wings ahead 4-2.

Poehling scored in front off a feed from Couturier at 3:50 of the third period to make it 4-3. Tippett tied the game with less than two minutes left, carrying the puck into Detroit’s zone, skating around Lyon, and putting the puck in the net.

The Red Wings regained the lead 5-4 when Kane scored his first goal in 11 games, firing a shot from the left circle off a pass from Moritz Seider.

Raymond sealed the win with an empty-net goal.

The Detroit Red Wings have become experts at creating close games. Out of their last 13 games, only one was decided by more than two goals.

Unfortunately, they haven’t had the best luck. The Red Wings are 5-5-3 during this stretch, which included five straight losses, two of which were in overtime.

However, they did manage a crucial 4-2 win over Toronto on Saturday, which was almost another one-goal game. Lucas Raymond scored an empty-net goal at the end to seal the victory.

“Again, I may sound like a broken record, but what is a little bit frustrating in our big picture is that five-game stretch, and our process and underlying numbers, they are easy to pick apart when you’re winning and not as easy to pick apart when you’re losing,” coach Derek Lalonde said.

“Whatever the reality is, the bottom line is finding ways to win games. We need to slip some of those tight games, and we’ve done that in two of our last three to get some traction here.”

Defenseman Jeff Petry scored his first goal of the season against the Maple Leafs, and that win started a stretch where Detroit will play seven of eight games at home this month.

“Looking at the big picture before Christmas break, we had five games and we set a goal,” Petry said. “Our goal was to make sure we start off right with a win. We did what we needed to do (Saturday) to get the win. It’s a good start for the week ahead.”

Philadelphia defeated Detroit 4-1 two nights before, with Scott Laughton having a career night. He scored all of the Flyers’ goals, including two empty-netters.

Like the Red Wings, the Flyers have also not played since Saturday. They’ve lost four of their last six games, including a 4-1 loss to Minnesota on Saturday.

Samuel Ersson has started in goal for three of the last four games since returning from a lower-body injury.

“(Saturday) was a step forward in some areas where I’m trying to make some work on, but obviously when you get the loss there’s definitely other things that you want to keep working at,” Ersson said. “I’ll keep going here.”

A big topic of discussion after Monday’s practice was the first line of Sean Couturier, Joel Farabee, and Travis Konecny. While Konecny leads the team with 15 goals and 36 points, coach John Tortorella has not been happy with their defense.

“I think they’ve been awful defensively,” he said. “They’ve been brutal. They make me dizzy, they spin so much in our end zone. They need to stop in our end zone. Once rush coverage is over, and we haven’t grabbed the puck, and we’re in the corner — it’s called arrivals. I always talk about arrivals; how you arrive on that rush coverage is key to coverage.

“It’s key to getting (the puck) back,” Tortorella added. “If you’re spinning all over the place, no one knows where you’re going to be. No one knows if you’re going to be the first man, the low man, or you’re going to be covering the point. That’s where your defense ends up playing in between. … But they’re smart enough people and they’re good enough players that they’ll rectify that.”