PHILADELPHIA — Spurred by their desire to honor their captain in his 1,000th game, the Flyers overcame a third-period slump to beat the Nashville Predators, 5-4, breaking a three-game losing streak.
With the excitement from Claude Giroux’s milestone game celebration still buzzing through the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers got off to a fast start. They flew to the puck and approached battles with an energy not seen yet this season. And when Zack MacEwen dropped the gloves seven minutes in, the place exploded. Seconds after he entered the penalty box, Travis Sanheim scored the first goal.
The intermission killed the energy. It fizzled further when the Predators scored 24 seconds into the second period on a Tanner Jeannot goal. With one swing, Cam York brought the noise back. His power play goal gave them the lead just a minute later. Giroux’s longtime teammate James van Riemsdyk then scored one for his friend to give the Flyers a two-goal lead.
Giroux’s former teammate Philippe Meyers then scored, but for the other team. It was his first goal with the Nashville Predators. When Travis Konecny was called for a four-minute penalty, the Predators capitalized to tie the game when Ryan Johansen scored. Filip Forsberg broke the tie with a goal early in the third period.
After a Derick Brassard goal was called back because of a high stick, the Flyers put it right back on the board when Kevin Hayes scored during a 4-on-4. With the energy back, the Flyers took charge of the game, and Joel Farabee scored the winning goal with 1:15 left.
Crowded in the box
After their bout of fisticuffs, Michael McCarron and McEwen were the first two to warm the bench of the penalty box. However, they weren’t alone for long. Mattias Ekholm joined them, then Giroux. In all, there were 30 penalty minutes and eight power plays between the two teams.
While the special teams have been cause for concern in recent games, both the penalty kill and the power play improved.
The penalty kill clogged up shooting lanes, made saves, and cleared the puck. It killed two before giving up a goal during a 4-minute kill, but it went on to successfully kill the final two minutes.
Meanwhile, the power play scored a goal — a rare occurrence this season — and created momentum on the ones that did not result in goals.
Shots for Giroux
One, two, three, four — Sanheim, Giroux, and Konecny bombarded Predators goalie Juuse Saros with a flurry of shots to kick off the Flyers’ offense. After the sequence where Sanheim placed a shot on goal and Giroux and Konecny tried to knock it in, the rest of the Flyers picked up on their shot-first mentality.
The Flyers outshot the Predators, 17-11, in the first period and 11-8 in the second. In the third, they trailed 15-5 as their play dropped, but they still finished the game down one shot, 34-33.
Konecny and Atkinson, who have both been known as goal scorers in the past, and Sanheim, who has looked to return to his reputation as an offensive defenseman, led the way in shots.
Inspiring the uninspired
Since the Flyers returned from the All-Star break, they’ve suffered more than their share of gut-wrenching losses. The worst came when they gave up leads in the third, something they’ve done four times. They’ve lost nine when tied going into the third.
Against the Predators, the Flyers had a two-goal lead halfway through the second period. By the end of the second, they’d given up the lead. Just over a minute into the third, they fell behind as their execution dropped.
But as the clock wound down, the Flyers demonstrated their captain’s characteristic will to win and started battling again. After one goal was called back, they quickly scored to make up for it. Carter Hart stepped up to give them the chance to carry the momentum to a win.
What’s next
The Flyers head to Ottawa to play the Senators on Friday for the second half of a back-to-back. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
